Stand-up comedian and actor Chris D'Elia has become the subject of multiple allegations of sexual abuse.
D'Elia, known for his role as a pedophilic comedian on You, has been outed by a growing number of women for his gross misconduct and harassment—many of whom were underage at the time of his solicitations.
Twitter user Simone Rossi opened the floodgates, tweeting, "i still can't believe netflix cast chris d'elia as the pedophile in season to of 'you' like the literal IRONY."
Rossi linked a number of screenshots exposing D'Elia asking for pictures, presumably implying nude ones, from the then-16-year-old. The thread contains a number of emails between Rossi and D'Elia in 2015 making plans to meet up.
imagine being 16 and being groomed by a stand up comedian twice ur age and the only reason you never met up and never got physically m*lested was because u had just gotten a boyfriend ur own age pic.twitter.com/xq7XDrat8i
— simoné (@girlpowertbh) June 16, 2020
Concentrating on the high school girls’ stories right now pic.twitter.com/dewutlbJ8u
— SheRatesDogs (@SheRatesDogs) June 17, 2020
"imagine being 16 and being groomed by a stand up comedian twice ur age and the only reason you never met up and never got physically m*lested was because u had just gotten a boyfriend ur own age," Rossi continued. She believed that she was not the only underage woman D'Elia solicited or harrassed—and she wasn't wrong.
A variety of users stepped forward, both publicly and anonymously, to share their experiences at the hands of D'Elia, whose offenses ranged from harassment and solicitation for pictures to direct requests to meet up to blackmailing girls when they refused to comply.
D'Elia denied all accusations through a statement to TMZ, claiming that he "never knowingly pursued any underage women at any point."
"All of my relationships have been both legal and consensual and I have never met or exchanged any inappropriate photos with the people who have tweeted about me," he said.