This article was updated to reflect that John Kricfalusi allegedly sexually harassed two people after he was fired by Nickelodeon in 1992 for unrelated reasons.
Byrd and another young aspiring artist, Katie Rice, were only teenagers when they started corresponding with the much older Kricfalusi. He would encourage and befriend them, then teach them how to set up their AOL instant messenger accounts so they could talk privately. At 16, Byrd says the animator assaulted her for the first time, but by then she fully trusted him. Byrd took him up on his offer for an internship at his production studio. When she graduated at 17, she went to go live with him. She ended up leaving animation because of Kricfalusi’s abuse.
While Katie Rice — the other woman who came forward to Buzzfeed — escaped physical assault, Kricfalusi began flirting with her when she about 15. Later, when collaborating on a music video with Kricfalusi, Rice was forced to watch the artist walk around his house with his genitals out. The showrunner also wrote an email to her that said, “I’m thinking about you very hard right now. And I have a little tickle in my chest.” Co-workers who were interviewed for the story admitted to feeling uncomfortable about the young girls in the office, but never spoke out against their boss’ behavior.
Kricfalusi took advantage of his position to exploit these young women in a pattern that’s become more recognized after Weinstein’s dethroning. He’s not the first personality from Nickelodeon to receive accusations of sexual harassment or worse. Last year, “The Loud House” creator Chris Savino was fired from the studio after twelve women stepped forward with stories of sexual harassment and retribution after break ups. Nickelodeon terminated its contract with Dan Schneider, the creator behind a number of live-action success stories like “iCarly,” “The Amanda Show” and “Drake and Josh,” after stories emerged about the showrunner’s creepy behavior.
Animation has a significant problem with diversity that should also be examined. In 2016, Deadline reported that only 23 percent of the Animation Guild were women. That’s a union group that included writers, animators and technicians across the entertainment industry. Women in major animation studios such as Disney, Fox, Dreamworks and Sony made up only 20 percent or less of their workforces.
Abusive gatekeepers like Kricfalusi can keep women like Byrd out of the the entertainment industry. Who knows how many other women Kricfalusi stopped from coming in and changing the animation field had they been given an opportunity like Kricfalusi enjoyed – without sexual harassment or abuse.