A hit docuseries examining decades of child sex abuse at Nickelodeon has revealed that one past employee preyed on kids both at the TV network and at a California church.

Quiet On Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, which premiered last month, chronicles the rise and fall of producer Dan Schneider, who worked at Nickelodeon from 1993 to 2019. Schneider, who frequently wrote “comedic” double entendre scenes for child actors, had multiple child sex offenders employed on his shows, the docuseries reveals.

One sex offender is Jason Handy, a Nickelodeon production assistant and a volunteer at a Malibu church. According to Quiet on Set, Handy used his job to get child actors’ contact details, groom them, and abuse them.

In 2004, Handy was convicted on two felony counts—one of lewd acts on a child and one of distributing sexually explicit material by email—and a misdemeanor charge related to child sexual exploitation, and sentenced to six years in prison. 

According to the series, Handy, a production assistant on Schneider’s TV series All That and The Amanda Show, used his faith to ingratiate himself with child actors. 

All That cast member Giovonnie Samuels states that Handy, then 28, joined an on-set Bible study with her and another actress. She referred to him as a “goofy white guy from Nebraska.”

“He appeared to be this really nice, genuine person,” said Samuels.

Police investigators stated that Handy volunteered at a church in Malibu during this time, where he worked with children, age six and under. 

The docuseries introduces an 11-year-old aspiring actress, identified as “Brandi,” and her mother “MJ.” The child and her mother’s last name is not used for privacy reasons. When Brandi guest-starred on The Amanda Show, Handy asked for her email address and contacted her. 

In a segment from Quiet On Set released online, MJ recounts Handy’s illicit communication with her daughter. 

After weeks of seemingly innocuous emails, Handy sent her a picture of himself naked and masturbating. “He said he had sent it to her because he had wanted her to see that he was thinking of her,” said the mother.

Following his sentencing in 2004 on child sex abuse-related charges and six-year prison sentence, Handy moved to North Carolina. 

Handy was rearrested in 2014 and convicted of multiple felony counts of indecent liberties with a child and failure to register as a sex offender. He is currently serving a 24-year prison sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Hopewell, Virginia. 

‘Nothing can replace a parent’s oversight’

One of the series’ most memorable moments is a dad’s teary-eyed admission.

Joe Bell, father of Nickelodeon star Drake Bell, shares how he was impacted upon learning of his son’s sexual abuse by Nickelodeon dialogue coach Brian Peck.

“I’m not the same today,” said Joe Bell. “The pain’s still there from the moment that I knew. I don’t wish this on any parent or child whatsoever. It’s just devastating.”

Joe Bell said he was wary of Peck from the beginning, noticing how Peck inappropriately touched his son behind the scenes. 

Entertainment journalist Rick Ellis, who is featured in the docuseries and has reported on allegations against Schneider for years, spoke in an interview with The Roys Report (TRR). Father of a teenage son, Ellis said he found these scenes of Bell to be the most impactful of the docuseries. 

“The biggest takeaway is that nothing can replace a parent’s oversight,” Ellis said. “Time and time again, the documentary showed what can happen when a parent is removed from the equation.”

Sex abuse and misconduct no longer ignored

Ellis compared Quiet On Set to two other recent hit TV projects that have focused on sexual abuse and misconduct within the church. These are Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets and God Forbid, chronicling the sex scandal involving former Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. 

“What they all have in common is that the projects all pull back the curtain on bad behavior that in earlier times might have been ignored or under-reported,” Ellis told TRR. 

With the release of a bonus episode of Quiet On Set slated for Sunday, Ellis said he expects the series to continue to keep the issue of child sex abuse in the public conversation.  

“The nature of streaming means that word of mouth can make these projects extremely popular,” he said. “Even if it’s a topic most viewers might not seek out, they’ll tune in once they have had a few friends or family members recommend it.” 

Rated TV-14 for mature thematic content, “Quiet On Set” is currently streaming on Max and Discovery+. 

Freelance journalist Josh Shepherd writes on faith, culture, and public policy for several media outlets. He and his family live in the Washington, D.C. area.