Kel Mitchell, who appeared in Nickelodeon's hit shows All That and Kenan & Kel, has spoken out about Dan Schneider, who has been accused engaging in unprofessional and inappropriate behaviors in the workplace.
“The vibe of the show started to change a little bit,” Mitchell, 45, said when Schneider took overAll That from original co-creator Brian Robbins, who “started to do Varsity Blues and all these different movies and the production team started to blow up, so they left."
“They left us with the head writer, Dan Schneider. So he’s writing, and me and him kind of bump heads a little bit,” Mitchell continued while on Keke Palmer's podcast, "Baby, This is Keke Palmer." “I remember me and Dan had a big argument on set. He was like, ‘Let’s go over here to this room right here, in this closet.’ He closed the door and he just took off, you know, just yelling all this wild stuff. Being an adult at this point, I had a decision to make, you know what I mean? I was just like, okay, either we [are] going to fight or either I’m going to leave. And so that’s what I did. I left the situation.”
Mitchell was an original cast member on All That, which debuted on the network in 1994. Years later, many of Mitchell's costars and alums, including Lori Beth Denberg, Giovonnie Samuels and Bryan Hearne, all spoke out against Schneider in the Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, a five-part documentary.
Denberg claimed Schneider showed her pornographic videos and engaged in a sexually suggestive relationship when she was only 19 years old, adding that they had a "weird, abusive friendship."
"I feel like that is the first time he preyed on me," she recalled.
Denberg accused Schneider of having sexual conversations with her and initiating phone s--. She claimed they also gave each other massages.
Schneider denied the allegations, stating: "Lori Beth's accusations of me are wildly exaggerated and, in most cases, false."
"As I have previously stated, there were times, particularly in the early years of my career, that I made mistakes and exhibited poor judgment as a leader," he continued. "If I did that with respect to Lori Beth, I sincerely apologize to her. But I cannot apologize for things I did not do."
Mitchell's pal and costar Kenan Thompson also spoke out about the allegations, but he denied ever seeing anything bad happen.
“It’s a tough subject. It’s tough for me because I can’t really speak on things that I never witnessed,” Thompson previously said. “All these things happened after I left, basically. Dan [Schneider] wasn’t really on Kenan & Kel like that. He got a ‘Created by’ credit, but it was a different showrunner. All that negativity kind of started happening outside of our tenure [at Nickelodeon]. I wasn’t really aware of a lot of it, but my heart goes out to anyone that’s been victimized, or their families.”
“It’s a good thing that the doc is out and it’s putting things on display that need to be, stories that need to be told for accountability’s sake. But it’s definitely tough to watch because I have fond memories of that place,” Thompson continued. “I have fond memories of my costars. To hear that they’ve gone through terrible things like that, it’s really tough.”
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While speaking to Variety, Thompson backtracked, saying: “I feel so guilty saying that. All those things started happening after our tenure, because, I guess, no one would even dare. It wasn’t that kind of environment. There was no dictatorship about it all. We were all building something and, when you’re building something, I don’t think anybody’s cocky enough to be pulling things behind the curtain.”
