Tri-Cities artist details a Nickelodeon ‘house of horrors’ in new tell-all documentary

A Tri-Cities artist is among a slate of former child actors featured in a new tell-all docuseries alleging problematic and illegal behavior by multiple Nickelodeon producers and showrunners in the late 1990s and 2000s.

Bryan Christopher Hearne, now 35, worked as a cast member for two seasons on the sketch comedy show, “All That.”

In the four-part Investigation Discovery documentary, “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV,” Hearne says he was pressured into participating in several televised segments he found uncomfortable, traumatic and embarrassing.

Hearne, who is Black, also says he was the butt of multiple racially problematic skits and was tokenized. In one sketch, an employee referred to his skin color as a “piece of charcoal.”

“The thing that was most uncomfortable is having to watch your fellow cast mates be essentially tortured,” he said, referring to a “Fear Factor”-type Nickelodeon knockoff he participated in called, “SNICK On-Air Dares.”

In one Dares segment, a young Hearne was coerced into letting dogs lick peanut butter off his body.

“If there’s anything on set that I wish I could have yelled, ‘Stop. Let’s not do this. I’m out,’ it’s still ‘On Air Dares,’” he said in the docuseries released Sunday, March 17, on streaming services Discovery+ and Max.

“Quiet on Set” has quickly leapt to the top of pop culture discussion. The series features interviews with former employees and child actors who starred in beloved kids shows including “Zoey 101,” “Drake & Josh,” “All That” and “The Amanda Bynes Show.”

Hearne is currently an artist based in the Tri-Cities. His work in racial justice during the George Floyd protests, as well as empowering artists and Black community members, earned him and his wife, Daishaundra Loving-Hearne, the 2021 Martin Luther King Jr. Spirit Award from Columbia Basin College.

When he was a child, Hearne’s family moved from New York to Los Angeles. He picked up work as a child actor, starring in movies including Keanu Reeves’ “Hardball” and Chris Rock’s “Pootie Tang.”

Hearne starred in seasons 7 and 8 of Nickelodeon’s premiere weekly sketch comedy show “All That,” airing 2002-03 to millions of weekend viewers. In the leadup to his third season, Hearne had expected to continue working on the show.

“I was excited to start my third season,” he says in the documentary. “I thought my dream of being able to take my family quite literally out of the ‘hood was on its way.”

But he was ultimately cut before production began on the show’s 9th season.

In the documentary, Hearne theorizes he was kicked off the show because of his mother’s watchful and protective eye. He said she wasn’t afraid to begin “raising hell” to show runners.

“I had no idea what I was saving my son from. It was a house of horrors. No kidding, a house of horrors,” said Hearne’s mother, Tracey Brown, in the documentary.

Alleged abuse

At the center of the controversy lies TV producer Dan Schneider, a mainstay who created and wrote some of the network’s most popular shows. Interviewees in the documentary claim much of the alleged abuse and misconduct they experienced occurred under the megaproducer’s watch.

In a video published after the documentary’s release, Schneider apologized for some of his behavior on the job. He previously parted ways with the network in 2018.

Some of the more egregious details in “Quiet on Set” deal with claims that a dialogue coach sexually assaulted Drake Bell, the actor and musician who starred in the sitcom “Drake & Josh” from 2004-07.

“My prayer is that this extremely important piece will shake Hollywood awake and evoke a change within the industry that leaves no room for any child actor to feel unsafe on any kind of set,” Hearne wrote in a recent post to Instagram. “I’m going to continue to do my part as a youth advocate and mentor. I hope more of us raise questions, speak out and rise up.”