'Wizards of Waverly Place' star says he 'tripped and fell' into a porn career
- "Wizards of Waverly Place" actor Dan Benson said he "accidentally" became an adult film star.
- He explained in a recent TikTok video that his nude photos were leaked while he was on the show.
Former Disney Channel star Dan Benson said he "tripped and fell" into the adult entertainment industry.
Benson is best known for his role as Zeke Beakerman in "Wizards of Waverly Place," which aired from 2007 until 2012, and starred Selena Gomez.
In his latest TikTok posted Saturday, the former child actor explained how he went from starring in the hit children's show to "accidentally" becoming an adult entertainment performer.
"I thought I'd take just a minute to explain how I kind of tripped and fell into doing adult entertainment," Benson said. "Basically when I was on the show 'Wizards of Waverly Place,' I would get messages from people all the time. Some of those being women that I found incredibly attractive."
He continued: "Turns out, messaging those women — who turned out not to be who they said they were — was not the best idea, because I would send nude photos to them, and they would take those nude photos and then post them onto online websites. Quickly, I learned that my nude photos and videos were all over the web."
Benson said that this was a "pretty traumatic experience" and he spent years trying to get these photos of him off of the internet. He also said that after retiring from acting, he almost "lost his job" due to the leaked photos and videos.
"It had a very big negative impact on my life," the former actor recalled. "Eventually, I decided to stop fighting against it and instead go the other direction and completely lean into it and build out a page. Instead of letting these people sell my privacy, my, you know what I mean... I decided to say, 'All right, screw you, I'm gonna sell it myself.'"
Benson said that after diving into adult entertainment, he has had a "tremendous amount of fun" and it changed his life "for the better."
Benson is not the only former Disney actor to make the jump into adult entertainment. Both "Boy Meets World" star Maitland Ward and "Shake It Up" star Bella Thorne have sold pictures and videos of themselves on the social media platform OnlyFans, and in 2019, Thorne won an award for directing her first adult movie, "Her and Him."