Raquel Lee Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images The former child actress Raquel Lee has sued The Walt Disney Co. for negligence, alleging an unidentified “middle-aged, male employee who was involved in the filming of” the 2001 Disney Channel original movie The Poof Point sexually abused and assaulted her. At the time, she was 14 years old.
The Hollywood Reporter has separately learned that Lee reached a confidential settlement agreement with actor Mark Curry in 2015. He played her father in The Poof Point. Gloria Allred, known for representing accusers against prominent individuals in sexual misconduct claims, represented Lee in the private resolution.
Related Stories
TV Disney's Lavish K-Drama 'The Remarried Empress' Sets Busan Premiere Ahead of Streaming Launch
Lifestyle Disney and NFL Fandoms Collide in Character-Inspired Collection of Team Gear
Lee and Curry didn’t respond to inquiries about the settlement. Allred had no comment. Disney previously declined to speak about Lee’s litigation against the company.
Curry, who was 40 when he made The Poof Point, is best known as the star of ABC’s popular 1990s sitcom Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper, which ran for five seasons as part of the network’s marquee TGIF block. A stand-up comedian, he also was one of the hosts of the syndicated It’s Showtime at the Apollo and had a recurring role on The Drew Carey Show as Carey’s boss.
Lee participated in the hit 2024 docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, discussing her experience as a Black performer on Nickelodeon’s The Amanda Show. She didn’t speak about her The Poof Point claims for Quiet on Set. However, after the program aired, she explained that Drake Bell’s admission he’s suffered on-set sexual abuse was “retraumatizing” for her.
Lee’s lawyer in the new litigation against Disney is Doug Wigdor. He’s a plaintiffs’ employment and sexual-misconduct specialist whose clients have included Cassie Ventura in her accusations against Sean “Diddy” Combs as well as a group of women who claimed misconduct by Harvey Weinstein.
Lee contends in her suit that the perpetrator, who “regularly made sexually explicit jokes and commentary on the set” around minors, assaulted her on several occasions in his room at a hotel where the film’s cast and crew stayed during production in Salt Lake City, as well as during a flight back to Los Angeles. It also maintains he harassed her on set “in plain view” of coworkers, including “sound technicians managing the cast’s microphones.”
The filing notes that “no one at Disney intervened,” and her assigned on-set guardian was separated from her “for the vast majority of each day.” Lee asserts that the misconduct significantly affected her performance, and yet Disney executives attacked her “changed behavior and trauma response,” eventually canceling her role in a future production with the studio. Nevertheless, she soon went on to spend multiple seasons working as a voiceover artist for the animated Disney Channel animated sitcom The Proud Family, and a few years ago joined its Disney+ revival The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder.
THR Newsletters
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day
Subscribe Sign Up
