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

"Zoey 101" star Alexa Nikolas doesn’t buy Schneider's public statement: "When someone doesn’t personally come to you and apologize, it’s not an apology."

A Nickelodeon star who participated in explosive documentary series Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV isn't impressed with former producer Dan Schneider's video addressing the doc's claims about his time at the network, including allegations of sexism and creating a toxic work environment.

Alexa Nikolas, who played Nicole Bristow on Zoey 101 and appeared in Quiet on Set, released a lengthy reaction video to Schneider’s YouTube response, in which the Zoey 101 co-creator admitted "there's definitely things that I would do differently" and said "I definitely owe some people a pretty strong apology." In her own video, Nikolas called out Schneider for releasing the public statement instead of making private apologies to the kids who worked on his sets.

“When someone doesn’t personally come to you and apologize, it’s not an apology,” she said. “If you hear about it through other people, it’s not really an apology right? An apology is to the person that you hurt. That’s what an apology is for.”

Alexa Nikolas Dan Schneider Nickelodeon star blasts Dan Schneider's 'Quiet on Set' response video: 'Where’s a phone call of an apology?
Alexa Nikolas and Dan Schneider.

alexa nikolas/instagram; dan warp/youtube

In the docuseries, Nikolas was one of several former child stars to express that their time on Nickelodeon negatively impacted their mental health and self-esteem. "Towards the end of season 2 of Zoey 101, I wasn’t happy," she shared. "I actually could not show up to set anymore without crying. A lot of my self-worth was deeply damaged from that set experience. Me as a person was altered for life."

In Tuesday's response video, the actress called for a private apology from Schneider several times. “I would’ve appreciated if Dan apologized directly to me,” she said. “He’s a bully, a meanie, and impacted my life, right? ... Where’s a phone call of an apology? How come you can do all of this, how can everyone do all of this but not reach out to the person that they hurt?”

“You don’t feel anything, Dan,” she continued. “You’re like every frickin’ privileged white male I’ve honestly ever met on set. You don’t even know what accountability is. You have no idea what it is. You’re searching for it maybe, but you haven’t landed on it. That’s for sure. This is not the way. I don’t wanna have to watch this. I would have so rather gotten a letter from you, for example, apologizing, genuinely, than having to witness the whole world watching whatever the hell this is.”

"I don't forgive Dan Schneider," Nikolas said. "Not saying I'll never, right? But currently, right now, that made me a little more upset, just because that just wasn't it. That wasn't proper accountability. That was avoiding a lot of the main discussions here that were mentioned in Quiet on Set. This was him playing the sympathy card, centering himself, playing the victim."

Watch Schneider's statement and Nikolas’ full response above.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Related content:

Related Articles