Comedian Chris D’Elia Denies Preying On Teenage Girls After Playing Predator On ‘You’

Comedian Chris D’Elia has denied sexually harassing teenage girls online after many came forward on social media after appearing in Netflix series You where he played a man who preyed on underage women.

D’Elia released a statement  denying all allegations made against him. “I know I have said and done things that might have offended people during my career, but I have never knowingly pursued any underage women at any point,” he said. “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. That being said, I really am truly sorry. I was a dumb guy who ABSOLUTELY let myself get caught up in my lifestyle. That’s MY fault. I own it. I’ve been reflecting on this for some time now and I promise I will continue to do better.” 

Simone Rossi was the first woman to reveal her experiences with D’Elia. She said, “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 [molested] was because u had just gotten a boyfriend ur own age.”

She posted multiple screenshots of messages that she allegedly had with D’Elia when she was 16. Although Rossi revealed that she had never confirmed her age to D’Elia himself, Rossi told People,  “My Instagram at the time was full of pictures of me at my high school, pictures of my friends and I, and other images you would expect a high schooler to post. It also had my high school name in my bio, as I was in Student Government and that was often something I flaunted. This gives me reason to believe that he knew I was underage and I also personally believe that’s why he pursued me. He eventually unfollowed me and never talked to me again after I didn’t end up meeting up with him or sending him nudes. The last emails I have are from January 2015. I was still 16.”

As Rossi’s comments gained more and more traction, some questioned her credibility. To this she responded with a tweet, “i just want to say i don’t actually give a f— if you don’t believe me. stop asking me to further talk about the grooming and my experience in order for you to ‘believe’ me. my voice and the voices of COUNTLESS of other young girls and women should be enough.”

However, she also spurred many others to come forward saying that D’Elia had been grooming them as well. 

Twitter uses @michaelacoletta wrote, “although i’ve been publicly saying it for years, F— Chris D’elia. he solicited nudes off of me when i was 17 years old and constantly messaged me whenever he was touring vancouver and asked me to come backstage to his shows.”

User @colleenriley42 attached her own messages with D’Elia and said, “Chris D’elia tried to procure me when I was 16. The accusations against him are all true, these emails are from 2014.”

D’Elia’s character on You was killed off and will not be appearing in the third season. He has also played roles in shows such as Whitney and Undateable.

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