Former 'Zoey 101' Star Alexa Nikolas Protests Outside Of Nickelodeon HQ & Demands Apology From Network: I Did Not Feel Protected At Nickelodeon As A Child

It’s been 14 years since the last episode of Zoey 101 aired on Nickelodeon, but Alexa Nikolas will never forget the mistreatment she suffered while filming the series.

Alexa Nikolas, 30, played Nicole Bristow, the best friend of leading character Zoey Brooks (Jamie Lynn Spears), in the hit series. While things appeared to be good and well on-screen, Alexa Nikolas is bringing awareness to the alleged off-camera child abuse she suffered from “weird” show creator Dan Schneider, as well as other executives.

A post shared to Instagram on Friday (August 26) shows Nikolas standing outside of Nickelodeon headquarters, taking part in a demonstration criticizing the network’s working conditions for child actors.

“It’s pretty triggering to be here at Nickelodeon today. I didn’t even sleep last night. But I think anyone is redeemable if they actually do the right things moving forward. But they haven’t even given a comment, but I find that really awful because Jennette and all of us deserve an apology.”

Nikolas promotes better treatment of children in the workplace as part of her “Eat Predators” campaign. She demanded that ex-Nickelodeon actors, or “survivors,” be freed from the non-disclosure agreements they’re forced to sign. She also demanded an apology. The caption of her Instagram post read,

“If you are a survivor of child sexual abuse you have until December in the state of California to get justice. Doesn’t matter what year it happened. If you feel the time is now for you then call 1-800-it’s-time for legal advice so you can begin that process. The choice has to be yours. And yours only.”

alexa nikolas, nickelodeon

Dan Schneider is said to have psychologically abused Nikolas during her time on the show by yelling at her until she cried, which is partially what sparked her present-day calls to investigate his company Schneider Bakery — especially since he has been trying for years to silence her.

According to Nikolas,

“I [remember] I had just started to kind of speak out about how weird Dan Schneider was, and I remember doing a post about sexualizing a young girl. And this kid reached out to me who was doing a documentary and was putting all of this stuff together about Dan Schneider and kind of his weird [behavior]. … [So] I’m sitting at my place in Palm Springs, and I get a text from my ex … but he was a person I was seeing at the time, and he texted me [and said] ‘some lawyer is calling me looking for you.'”

Nikolas initially had no clue what the lawyer wanted, but once she called him,

“He goes … I am the lawyer for Dan Schneider of Schneider’s Bakery. [He said] ‘so I just want to talk to you about some things, do you have something that you want to say about Dan Schneider?'””

alexa nikolas (aka nicole from the first two seasons of zoey 101) always talked a while back on how nickelodeon tried to silence her about her experiences working on the show and with dan schneider. pic.twitter.com/R6tPWjEobm

— khalia. | mrs. corleone?? (@VERONASFILMS) August 11, 2022

In response, Nikolas said she told the attorney she did have some things to say, but nothing in regards to what was happening in her life currently.

From 2005-2006, Nikolas appeared in seasons one and two of Zoey 101 before later being written out of the series. Jamie Lynn Spears later claimed in her memoir that Nikolas was hard to work with and made things “tense” while filming. In fact, pop star Britney Spears once took some pretty heavy jabs at Nikolas and threatened her career on behalf of her little sister — a move she has reportedly apologized for.

What are your thoughts on the entire situation? Let us know in the comments!

[VIA 1, 2]