“All That” star Lori Beth Denberg accuses Dan Schneider of showing her porn, initiating phone sex: 'He preyed on me'

The embattled ex-Nickelodeon producer calls Denberg's allegations "wildly exaggerated and, in most cases, false."

All That star Lori Beth Denberg has come forward to accuse former Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider of years of "abuse and mistreatment," including allegations that he lashed out at her both on and off set, repeatedly showed her pornography, and once initiated phone sex with her.

The actress, 48, is the latest Nickelodeon alum to accuse Schneider, 58, of inappropriate behavior, misusing his position of power, and fostering a toxic workplace environment. In a Business Insider story published Tuesday, Denberg claimed that her first such encounter with Schneider came in 1995, shortly after her 19th birthday, when he called her into his office for a conversation that spiraled into him showing her a pornographic video of a woman performing oral sex on a donkey.

"I feel like that is the first time he preyed on me," she said.

Schneider disputed Denberg's allegations in a statement provided to Entertainment Weekly, calling them "wildly exaggerated and, in most cases, false."

Related: Drake Bell, All That stars defend parents of child actors amid Quiet on Set allegations: 'They’re just learning along with us'

Schneider also noted that the journalist who wrote the Business Insider story, Kate Taylor, is an executive producer of the recent Investigation Discovery docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, which features former Nickelodeon stars and crew members discussing allegations of racism, sexual harassment, sexism, and verbal abuse on sets headed by Schneider. Schneider, who left the network in 2018, has called the doc a "hit job" and is suing the producers.

"The fact that an Executive Producer of Quiet on Set would pursue allegations regarding what may have happened between adults nearly thirty years ago — only a week after I filed a defamation lawsuit accusing Quiet on Set of being intentionally false and misleading — seems more than coincidental," Schneider said in his statement Tuesday. "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. If I did that with respect to Lori Beth, I sincerely apologize to her. But I cannot apologize for things I did not do."

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Denberg, who starred on All That from 1994 until 1998, claimed that she and Schneider would often discuss sexual topics during frequent phone calls to one another, and that Schneider once initiated phone sex. Beginning in 1996, Denberg said, she began spending evenings and having sleepovers at Schneider's Los Angeles home, where the pair would give each other messages and Schneider would play porn on his computer.

During one alleged occasion at Schneider's home when she was around 20 or 21, Denberg recalled the pair making a bet about who could answer the most Jeopardy questions, with the winner getting a massage. When Denberg won, she alleged, Schneider fondled her breasts and put his mouth on them.

Related: Nickelodeon star blasts Dan Schneider's Quiet on Set response video: 'Where's a phone call of an apology?'

At the time, Denberg said, she didn't consider her sexual encounters with Schneider to be inappropriate because she was over the legal age of consent. In recent years, however, she began to see the power imbalance between them and recalled feeling that if she were to ever turn down Schneider, he might have stopped writing sketches for her or demeaned her on set.

"I couldn't have been more green," said Denberg, who equated her relationship with Schneider to a "weird, abusive friendship." She added, "I couldn't have been more vulnerable."

Schneider was also accused of showing pornography to Amanda Show writer Jenny Kilgen in an episode of Quiet on Set. Denberg claimed that Schneider would show writers the explicit videos during work in order to see "how far I can push this person."

Denberg told Business Insider that Schneider would lash out at her on and off set as well. She recalled one instance in which he allegedly made a comment about her breast size over dinner with writers and crew members. When she threw a bread roll at him in response, Denberg said, Schneider screamed at her and stormed out of the restaurant. "It was one of those turns that was just really upsetting and scary," she said. "Everyone else seemed to completely blow it off."

Related: Everything Nickelodeon stars are saying about Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV

Denberg also alleged that, around 2000, she personally reached out to Nickelodeon's then-president of film and television, Albie Hecht, and All That co-creator Brian Robbins (now president and CEO of Nickeloden and a co-CEO of parent company Paramount Global) to voice her concerns about how Schneider was treating Amanda Bynes after witnessing how tired the young actress looked on the set of The Amanda Show. Denberg said that Hecht later told her they'd changed Bynes' shooting schedule to make it easier for her, only to find out from a friend who worked on the show that she had been allegedly banned from set.

EW has reached out to representatives for Hecht and Nickelodeon for comment.

Upon hearing that she'd been barred from the Amanda Show set, Denberg said that she was overcome with "disgust and defeat and sadness." She added, "I felt like I tried to help her — to help Amanda, and couldn't."

By sharing her story, Denberg said she hoped to make others feel safe to reveal their own interactions with Schneider. "There's right and wrong," she said, "and there's true and false."

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.