Where Is Dan Schneider Now? His Career Has Faced Controversy

The Gist:

• Dan Schneider created a number of hit shows for Nickelodeon during his career.
• Unfortunately, his legacy has been marred by allegations of abusive behavior in the workplace.
• Though he and Nickelodeon parted ways in 2018, he still appeared to work for them.

Before Dan Schneider was known as the creator of shows like Kenan & Kel, iCarly, and Zoey101, he was an actor. People of a certain age will definitely remember him as Dennis in Head of the Class, the snarky physics-loving student who had prime back-of-the-room seating next to what now looks like the world’s first computer. The series was about a ragtag group of geniuses and the ex-hippy teacher who taught them there was life outside of books.

It’s easy to imagine the person who embodied that character would then go on to solidify Nickelodeon as the place to be for kid and teen programming. Sadly, his legacy has been laced with controversy which led to Schneider and Nickelodeon parting ways in 2018 after a 25-year relationship. Where is Dan Schneider now? Here’s what we know.

Despite an internal investigation by Nickelodeon’s parent company ViacomCBS into Scheider’s actions, he is still working with Nickelodeon. According to Business Insider, the network “cut ties with Schneider after an investigation found he’d verbally abused colleagues.” Evidently that didn’t stick because in March 2020 Danger Force premiered on Nickelodeon, and it was created by Christopher J. Nowak, Dana Olsen, and Schneider. As of the time of this writing, the show has had three seasons.

The year after Danger Force debuted, Schneider gave his first interview to The New York Times since semi-exiting his business partnership with Nickelodeon. As the newspaper wrote in its 2021 piece: “[Schneider] declined to comment on the investigation. But he defended his leadership style, denied he left on bad terms, and described his departure as a natural confluence of events after an ‘exhausting’ period in which he delivered as many as 50 episodes of shows each year.”

However, people who worked with him told a different story.

The New York Times also got in touch with four people who were interviewed by ViacomCBS, but who were legally allowed to discuss it. They denied seeing anything sexually inappropriate on set but did confirm he was verbally abusive. Schneider referred to this behavior as being “difficult,” and attributed it to his “high standards.”

Arthur Gradstein wrote on four of Schneider’s shows, and knew him pretty well. About his time working with Schneider, Gradstein said his experience was a “blast” but his boss was also “unreasonably demanding, controlling, belittling and vindictive, with a willful disregard for boundaries or workplace appropriateness.” Funny how this sort of behavior is often spun as committed rather than what it is: damaging.

Amid these allegations of abusive behavior, iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jeannette McCurdy released a memoir in 2022 that included details about her time working on Schneider’s shows. Though she didn’t name Schneider specifically, she referred to a head figure as “The Creator” who was “mean-spirited, controlling, and terrifying” and had, among other things, allegedly pressured her to drink. She also said Nickelodeon offered her “hush money” but that she didn’t take it.

Schneider was not part of the iCarly revival, but he publicly wished the show well.