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Kenan Thompson Addresses ‘Quiet on Set’ Doc: “My Heart Goes Out to Anybody That’s Been Victimized”

carly thomas
·3-min read

Kenan Thompson is speaking out following the shocking allegations on Nickelodeon sets revealed in the Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV docuseries.

The actor and comedian, who previously rose to fame following his roles on Nickelodeon shows Kenan & Kel and All That in the late ’90s and early 2000s, recently opened up about his experience on the sets as well as gave his support for those who shared their personal stories in the doc.

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“It’s a tough subject because, it’s tough for me because I can’t really speak on things that I’ve never witnessed,” Thompson said on Wednesday’s episode of the daytime talk show Tamron Hall. “You know what I’m saying? Because all these things happened after I left, basically, and Dan [Schneider] wasn’t really on Kenan & Kel like that. I mean, he got a ‘created by’ credit, but it was a different showrunner. So our worlds weren’t really overlapping outside of all that, necessarily. And then all that negativity kind of started happening outside of our tenure there.”

The Saturday Night Live star continued, “I wasn’t really aware of a lot of it, but my heart goes out to anybody that’s been victimized or their families, you know what I mean? I mean I think it’s a good thing that the doc is out and it’s putting things on display that need to be, you know, stories that need to be told for this, accountability sake. But it’s definitely tough to watch because I have fond memories of that place and I have fond memories of my co-stars and stuff like that. So to hear that they’ve gone through terrible things like that, it’s just, it’s really tough.”

Elsewhere in his Tamron Hall interview, Thompson noted that he hasn’t talked to his All That co-star Amanda Bynes — who did not participate in the docuseries but was frequently mentioned — in nearly two decades.

“I unfortunately haven’t spoken to Amanda since she was really, really young,” the Good Burger actor said. “Like when she was doing her first movies. I think the soccer movie [2006’s She’s the Man] was around that time, was the last time I actually saw her. I’m just rooting for her from afar.”

Thompson joins a growing list of former Nickelodeon stars, including Drake Bell, Josh Peck and Alexa Nikolas, who have addressed the allegations that came out of Investigation Discovery’s four-part docuseries.

Quiet on Set outlines allegations of abuse, sexism, racism and inappropriate behavior involving underage stars and crewmembers on Nickelodeon TV show sets — including The Amanda Show, Drake & Josh, iCarly and Victorious — which were overseen by Schneider.

In the third episode, Drake Bell also graphically recounted alleged abuse by his former dialogue coach, Brian Peck, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a Nickelodeon child actor in 2004. At the time of the trial, the identity of the child was unknown publicly.

Days after the docuseries was released, Schneider broke his silence, saying it was “very difficult” to watch. “Me facing my past behaviors, some of which are embarrassing and that I regret,” he added in a video interview with BooG!E, who played T-Bo on iCarly. “I definitely owe some people a pretty strong apology.”

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