Yesterday, we discussed the situation with Chris D’Elia, an actor and comic who had a part in You, and he’s also well-known for his stand-up comedy. It is through his stand-up work across North America that he seemingly began to prey on teenage girls online. If a teenage girl – usually a high school student, aged anywhere from 15 to 18, tweeted at him or referenced him online, he would start following her accounts, DM-ing her and asking her to send him photos. He tried to arrange meet-ups with many of the girls and some even did meet with him.
A young woman named Simone Rossi was the first to share her story on Tuesday, and for the next 24 hours, women and girls were sharing similar stories of how D’Elia groomed them, stalked them online, begged for photos or meet-ups and more. It’s all out there. Many of the girls/women he preyed on kept the receipts. They posted the receipts on Twitter. It’s all out there. But Chris D’Elia is exactly the kind of rape-bro who has an awesome comeback like “nah, those bitches are lying!”
In a statement to PEOPLE, Chris D’Elia said, “I know I have said and done things that might have offended people during my career, but I have never knowingly pursued any underage women at any point. All of my relationships have been both legal and consensual and I have never met or exchanged any inappropriate photos with the people who have tweeted about me. That being said, I really am truly sorry. I was a dumb guy who ABSOLUTELY let myself get caught up in my lifestyle. That’s MY fault. I own it. I’ve been reflecting on this for some time now and I promise I will continue to do better.”
He has not been criminally or civilly charged. Netflix did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
In a statement to PEOPLE, Simone Rossi shed more light on her alleged conversations with D’Elia.
“When I was 16 I replied to a picture that Chris had tweeted. I’m pretty sure I said ‘cute.’ He immediately DM’d me on his verified Twitter account an email address and the words ‘Use it,’ hence why in some of the emails I posted the subject line is ‘Use it???’ We emailed briefly, he asked if I was in LA, I said no, he said ‘How we supposed to make out then’ and he asked for ‘pics’ to which I replied with a panda photo and a selfie. I used a laughing face emoji at one point and he said “What’s with that emoji?” so then I switched to a kissy face emoji. That was a majority of our conversation from summer 2014,” she said.
“Then on New Years Day 2015, that’s when he asked to hang out when he was in Tempe. I don’t know how he remembered I lived in Arizona based off a conversation from 5 months prior, but he did. That’s the second time he talked about ‘making out’ with me. He asked for my Instagram at that point and began following me,” she continued. “My Instagram at the time was full of pictures of me at my high school, pictures of my friends and I, and other images you would expect a high schooler to post. It also had my high school name in my bio, as I was in Student Government and that was often something I flaunted. This gives me reason to believe that he knew I was underage and I also personally believe that’s why he pursued me. He eventually unfollowed me and never talked to me again after I didn’t end up meeting up with him or sending him nudes. The last emails I have are from January 2015. I was still 16.”
First of all, I love that Simone Rossi, a young woman I do not know at all, is like “you know what, HERE IS WHAT HAPPENED, here’s all the evidence, enough.”
As for D’Elia’s statement… my God. “I have never knowingly pursued any underage women at any point.” An absolute lie – every woman with a story about him follows the same pattern, with him asking their age or commenting on something to do with their high school classes or something very obviously about how they were teenage girls. “All of my relationships have been both legal and consensual and I have never met or exchanged any inappropriate photos with the people who have tweeted about me.” Another lie?? But this one killed me dead: “I was a dumb guy who ABSOLUTELY let myself get caught up in my lifestyle. That’s MY fault. I own it.” Ah, yes. The sexual predator lifestyle. The rape-bro LYFE. He would have given up his sexual predator lifestyle years ago, but the outfits were too cool.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
The correct statement and action should be ‘i’ ve never pursued any woman at any point”…
He’s exactly the kind of creep who would say “underage women.” Girls. The word you’re looking for is “girls.”
Children works too
Sure does!
Bingo!
Yes.
I never seen boys referred to as underaged men, it’s always underaged boys. But “underaged women” is FAR too common, and NOT A THING. They are children.
Ella, so true! That’s just struck me too, thanks for pointing that out – it’s so disturbing – underage women is SUCH a tell. He’s revealing how he thinks about children being sexual adult!
I mean, it’s not really owning it if these girls all have proof of it and you’re denying it. That’s quite the opposite of ‘owning’ it.
He’s someone I would find funny once in a while, but I was never really a fan. There’s just something angry about the way he’ll make jokes at times that always threw up a red flag.
The other thing is – it’d be pretty hard to believe that all these women orchestrated some sort of organized attack on his character. WHY would anyone put that kind of effort into Chris D’Elia, you know what I mean? It’s just laughable that he’s brushing it off like it never happened or that it’s some sort of conspiracy.
One thing I DO believe is that he absolutely got caught up in that lifestyle. But I don’t think he’s nearly as self-aware as he’s claiming, and it’s pretty clear that he’s a predator based on the receipts we’ve been seeing.
“ There’s just something angry about the way he’ll make jokes at times that always threw up a red flag.”
That’s it exactly. my partner listened to his podcast for a bit and were both not shocked about this news. He’s always come across as mean and self centred.
I’d love for him to share who as a celebrity also ‘lives this lifestyle’, because that seems a horrifying Freudian slip. We already know of Epstein, and that took decades to blow up. Prince Andrew is still protected, Trump, Maxwell etc. Nygard is a Canadian billionaire currently facing charges for shipping girls to his island to abuse. There is big money mixed in with the abuse of girls, and D’Elia is the exact sort of weasel who might squeal on bigger fish.
I’d say I’d hope this ends him, but his audience won’t give a solitary f
My husband and I have watched a few of his podcast clips and most were painful. Occasionally there would be something funny, but he’s just SO salty. Which CAN be funny, but not the way he’s doing it. My husband liked him more than I did, but last night he was like “I’d like to say I was surprised, but I’m really not at this point” just based on EVERYTHING we’ve been seeing in the last few years where people are finally getting called out for their horrific behavior. And once you start reflecting back on different jokes and things, it really puts it into perspective.
I’m also willing to bet that most people in Hollywood have used their power over people in some way or another. Whether it’s something more benign like getting free things, or services for reduced costs, or more criminal like we’re seeing here.
And I think you’re right. I think that while he pretends to not be the kind of person who would rat on someone, I’m willing to bet that when push comes to shove, he’d be very quick to try and cover his own ass by throwing someone else under the bus with him.
What’s an “underage woman”?
That would be a child. I believe the word he was looking for is children.
I think it’s similar to your typical “female child who can’t vote yet” or “woman who was just crowned prom queen.”
On the Netflix show “You” he played a standup comic who had a thing for underage girls…
How very Louis CK of him
exactly what I was thinking.. dude was apparently just playing himself
It’s almost like jokes aren’t just jokes and come from somewhere…
I have no idea who he is.
It takes a special kind of ignorance and privilege to issue that kind of statement.
Gross…I hope Netflix and others dump this guy’s arse. Also “You” is a horrible show, the main character guy is a predator and Netflix chose to show how he thinks like it’s normalising his behaviour or even justifying how he acts…as a woman I think it’s an incredibly damaging show.
I read the book it was based on and hated it. Haven’t watched the series. Not good if it’s normalizing that behavior.
Who told him to say this? Good grief, there’s tons of women (I think the ones I saw were all adults now? Otherwise, I agree with other commenters that a 17 year old is in fact, a child, too young to be with this man) coming out with the exact same story…of them telling him they’re 17 and him not seeming bothered. Like, this is just a lie. And it took days to come up with this bad lie?
his material wasn’t very orginal and pretty middle school pubescent boy…Not a surprise he’s coming out as a possible child predator.
His whole statement is a fake out. I never “KNOWINGLY” pursued an underage girl, but I have gotten caught up in a “lifestyle”? Wtf does that mean? He’s excused for being a douchebag predator because he got a taste of c level fame?
I am waiting to see what Whitney Cummings has to say. She cast him for her sitcom giving him his start and has pushed his career for years. She likes to run around as a champion for justice. So far crickets from her.
And whatever PR or legal team went with underage women in the statement written for him. You are part of the problem. Hope you take enough drugs to sleep at night.
His dad was also an EP on Chicago Hope, Ally McBeal, Boston Legal, How to Get Away with Murder, etc. He definitely already had a leg up in the industry but Whitney is the first thing I had seen him in. But I’ve noticed a lot of silence from his buddies.
So far the only comic I have seen say anything is Matt from HQ Trivia and he just said Chris was over. Netflix still has his comedy specials on their platform. The rest crickets. And these are just the girls that came forward. How many did he actually meet touring? This wasn’t just flirty texts that went nowhere.
Hi all. Can someone please help me find the receipts? I’m extremely knew to Twitter and was only able to see texts messages sent to the weratedogs. Thank you so much!!! Im working on being more tech savvy
WeRateDogs should have screenshot images of all the conversations within the thread,
It’s SheRatesDogs, easy mistake though 🙂
It’s weird to me to say “I didn’t do this” but also “I am truly sorry and was dumb”. So which is it?
Also…that young lady has PROOF. He needs to go.
Does anyone remember the episode of Workaholics where this man plays a predator?!?!?! *barfs*
Comedy Twitter is bending itself into pretzels justifying his behavior. The standup world is NOT a welcoming place for people with morals.
EVEN if there was any credible doubt he didn’t know their ages (which there isn’t), his b.s. non apology shirking the responsibility for the fact he hounded and stalked strangers constantly to try to sleep with them reveals what a piece of sh*t human he is. “I was a dumb guy who let myself get caught up in the lifestyle” doesn’t take ownership of “I preyed on any woman (GIRL) I felt like online” at ALL. I am just so sick of men being scum online to any woman who has social media, it’s exhausting. I’m an old 40 something lady and I get creeps in my d.m.’s all the time, it must be non stop for younger women and that sucks, why do we allow men to act this way? He obviously thinks this isn’t bad enough to kill his career, and sadly based on Louis C.K. it might not be. Comedy culture needs to take ownership of enabling this kind of behavior, I am so glad the younger generation is not afraid to name names and take these abusers down. Even if you are a fan of this guy how can you support him after this? (I admit I don’t know his comedy, but I did see him in You and yikes, creepy a.f. in retrospect).
Major Franco vibes from this one
Not shocking in the least. Theo Von even made a “joking” reference about dressing up as an underage girl to get into D’Elia’s house on his podcast.