Chris D’Elia is accused of having sex with and soliciting more than 100 nude photos from a 17-year-old girl, according to a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
“Chris denies these allegations and will vigorously defend against them in court,” a spokesperson for D’Elia told TheWrap.
According to the suit, the unnamed 17-year-old girl first messaged D’Elia on Instagram and sent him a photo of herself hugging a teddy bear as a “joke,” not expecting the comedian to respond. But D’Elia responded “right away,” the suit said, and asked if she would come to one of his upcoming comedy shows. The following day, D’Elia sent his Snapchat account information to the girl, who added him on the photo-sharing social media platform.
From there, according to the suit, D’Elia began asking the girl to send him nude photos. Though she initially tried to ignore his requests, she eventually sent him a number of sexually explicit photos because he “would not talk about anything else until she complied with his demands,” the lawsuit said.
In November 2014, D’Elia also pressured the girl to attend one of his shows in Connecticut and instructed her to arrive earlier so they could meet in person, the lawsuit said. When she arrived, D’Elia told her to go to his hotel room, where he then had sex with her (The age of consent in Connecticut is 16). When they were having sex, the girl told D’Elia that she was 17 and still in high school, which the comedian said was “hot,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit then accused D’Elia of emotionally manipulating the girl into sending him sexually explicit photos and videos by unfollowing her on social media or threatening to stop all communication if she did not comply.
The girl ended all communication with D’Elia in 2019, after she saw him portray a comedian who preys on underage girls in the second season of Netflix’s “You,” and felt “deeply disturbed” by what D’Elia had done to her, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit, which specifically cites child pornography and child sexual exploitation statutes, is seeking unspecified damages and a trial jury.
Last summer, D’Elia was accused of sexually harassing multiple young girls and predatory online behavior. Last month, he posted a video on YouTube to admit that sex “controlled” his life but said that his relationships were “consensual and legal.”