Internet personality Daniel Avidan is being accused of grooming underage fans after a viral Reddit thread leaked video footage and screenshots of text messages exchanged between Avidan and a minor.
The 42-year-old musician, who co-hosts the YouTube gaming comedy channel Game Grumps along with animator and fellow YouTuber Arin Hanson, faced grooming allegations after the subreddit /rantgrumps leaked links to several videos and text messages shared by the alleged victim.
Video Evidence, Screenshots Leaked on Reddit Forum
The thread included a video of the showing off a two-seater hot tub in his hotel room and telling the person receiving the clip that he "wished you were here to take up the other one so we could f*ck."
Avidan allegedly followed up his request with text messages asking the victim for explicit videos telling him how she would enjoye spending time with him in the hot tub.
The alleged victim said she reached out to Avidan in September 2013 when she was 17 and he was 34. The two started exchanging messages about potentially meeting up and becoming friends when he was visiting her city for a show the following year.
The victim said her conversations with Avidan turned into "sexts" once she turned 18 and eventually "led to her meeting him backstage at a Game Grumps Live show where sexual activity occurred." After that meeting, the victim says Avidan ceased all contact with her.
Past Allegations Against Avidan
In November 2019, Avidan's ex-personal assistant and friend Kati Schwartz performed a play in New York called Bad People, a recontextualizing of her experience with the #MeToo movement. Fans noticed similarities between one of the play's characters and Avidan, prompting them to create multiple threads documenting accusations against the internet personality.
In each of these climes, Avidan used a similar method: "He'd approach women, cultivate a relationship with them to make it seem as if he wanted to date them or have a serious relationship with them, arrange to meet them for a weekend, then after the first sexual encounter or a single weekend would ditch further contact with them."
His actions were not limited to younger fans, however. One person claimed she was manipulated by Avidan in November 2019 when she was 30 year old.
"He told me he wanted to 'build an empire' with me and that he loved me," the victim said. "He booked fancy hotels in L.A. for us to have sex in. Then when I asked if we could be monogamous I never heard from him again. Next thing I know, he did the exact same thing to my friend."
