Hollywood agent Tyler Grasham reached out to a 16-year-old boy on Instagram in 2015, and over the next year professed a desire to be his boyfriend and start a family while helping him break into Hollywood, the teenager told TheWrap.
Brady Lindsey, pictured above and now 19, is one of three men who described what they said was predatory behavior by Grasham. The agent was fired from Agency for the Performing Arts on Friday, one day after TheWrap reported on former actor Blaise Godbe Lipman’s accusation that Grasham got him drunk and sexually assaulted him a decade ago, when he was 17 or 18.
“I didn’t know who he was. He said he was a big-time agent in L.A. and he worked at APA,” Lindsey said, describing how Grasham first contacted him on Instagram. “It checked out.”
Grasham has not replied to numerous requests for comment on the allegations or his firing by APA.
Lindsey said he was living in Utah when Grasham reached out to him online. He provided screenshots of conversations showing Grasham encouraging him to come to California. The age of consent in both states is 18. (The screengrabs are below.)
Lindsey traveled to California several times as a minor before moving there, and said that Grasham tried to get them to meet in person but he always said no.
“Often times he would try to convince me to have lunch with him, asking me if I would be his boyfriend even though I was underage,” Lindsey said.
Lindsey said a recurring theme in their conversations, aside from flirtation and attempts to arrange meetings, was Grasham offering to get Lindsey work as an actor.
“It was all talk of getting me gigs, but not being able to sign me up at the agency until I was already getting work,” Lindsey said.
“At one point, he mentioned he was trying to get me an audition for the new ‘Heathers’ remake, because I mentioned it was my favorite movie,” he continued.
Lindsay shared one message he said Grasham sent in mid-February 2016, when Lindsay was 17. An image of it shows Grasham saying he wants to earn money to be a “good boyfriend and provider to my family…. The family I don’t have yet…. But maybe you will be it.”
“Maybe,” Lindsey replied.
In another message, Grasham is seen telling Lindsey he looks forward to their “first date.”
Lindsay soon told Grasham he was in a relationship with someone else but wanted to remain friends and leave open the possibility of working together.
“Your honesty is very appreciated, and friends, yes. We will indeed be friends and I look forward to getting to know you better,” another screenshot shows Grasham responding. “I hope your relationship works but [if] it doesn’t, I’m still here.”
Lindsey moved to Hollywood in October 2016, soon after his 18th birthday, to begin an acting career. He said that days after his arrival, Grasham invited him to dinner at an Italian restaurant in West Hollywood, where he was given several glasses of wine and champagne even though he was under 21. Grasham then invited him to his home for dessert.
There, Grasham made unwelcome advances, Lindsey said.
“I told him ‘no’ at a certain point, [because] he got a little too physical,” Lindsey said. “But I didn’t want to discourage him because of the ramifications.”
He said he was referring to potential career ramifications.
Lindsay said Grasham asked if they could just kiss and cuddle, and Lindsey agreed.
Lindsey saw Grasham twice after that, he said. The pair went bar-hopping in Downtown L.A. without incident, and he also attended a barbecue at Grasham’s house that included “lots of drinking,” he said.
He said Grasham convinced him to spend the night, and again “made advances. I told him no again. I left around 4 or 5 a.m.”
A third man also described Grasham plying him with alcohol and then getting physical. Lucas Ozarowski said Grasham reached out to him on Tinder, which he was using to network with both men and women in the industry. He was 24 and had a girlfriend, he said.
He attended a barbeque at Grasham’s home that he described as “awkward off the bat.” (Ozarowski provided a photo of the evening, where he is pictured far left, next to Grasham).
“He was introducing me, massaging my shoulders and asking, ‘Isn’t he such a beautiful boy?’” Ozarowski said.
They remained in contact through January 2016, when Grasham invited Ozarowski to dinner at a West Hollywood Italian restaurant, where they had several glasses of wine.
From there, Ozarowski said, Grasham took him to a colleague’s birthday at a nearby bar, where “he was giving me drink after drink after drink. I started to leave them in the bathroom.”
Ozarowski said he had left his cell phone charging at Grasham’s house, and returned home with him after the bar to retrieve it.
He said Grasham offered him some marijuana and invited him to watch an awards-season screener of Matt Damon’s “The Martian.” He agreed to remain in the house while he waited for an Uber to arrive, he said.
“I’m sitting on the couch, and he reaches over pulls down my pants in one fell swoop. His hands were on my genitals. I pulled his hand out and said, ‘This is inappropriate,’” Ozarowski told TheWrap.
After that incident Ozarowski deleted Grasham from all social media channels. He did recall exchanging Snapchat messages, which automatically delete unless saved.
He said that in one, Grasham offered to get him work in exchange for sexual favors.
“At one point, he offered, ‘if you let me blow you, I can get you on any set you want,’” Ozarowski said.
He said he now lives in Pennsylvania and works on location shoots. “I miss L.A.,” he said.
Did the incident with Grasham cause him to move home?
“It drove me out,” he said.