NEED TO KNOW
Dan Benson struggled to move forward in his acting career after the end of Wizards of Waverly Place
Benson was working outside of the industry when his nudes were leaked online without his consent
The uncomfortable moment led to an opportunity that Benson couldn’t pass up amid financial struggles caused, in part, by his senior dog’s medical needs
Dan Benson took matters into his own hands when his acting career wasn’t paying the bills.
Benson — who is best known for playing Zeke Beakerman on the Selena Gomez-led Disney Channel series Wizards of Waverly Place — opened up about his experience leaving acting for a typical day job, only to later end up in the adult industry, as part of the latest episode of Hollywood Demons, “Child Stars Gone Wild.”
“When I got into this, I knew there were going to be things that were never going to be the same for me personally, but the benefits greatly outweighed the downsides for me. Before I started doing OnlyFans, I had never been able to have any money at the end of the year. I have never had a savings. Never, even when I was on the show working full time on Wizards of Waverly Place,” he shared.
“That almost paid rent. That didn’t quite pay rent, I had to get some help from my parents, but today, I’m one of the most successful OnlyFans male creators on the platform.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
The actor was on the Disney series throughout its run from 2007 to 2012 and admitted to feeling “hollow” when the show was done. As he tried to move on with his career, he struggled to find roles that fit.
“There was like a five-year period where I just couldn’t book anything. And then my agent dropped me,” he recalled, explaining that feeling those lows after such a career high led to a feeling of depression.
He shares that while he never wanted to kill himself, he “definitely got low enough to the point where I understood it.”
Benson eventually made the decision to move on from acting. He went on to art school and was working a job in marketing and sales when his boss informed him of news that rocked his world. He found out someone he’d been casually seeing leaked his nudes on Reddit.
“I remember the shock and just the fear of losing my job instantly over this. When I saw the pictures, I immediately knew where they came from. I remembered the person that I sent them to, and this was a person that I’d been casually flirting with online, virtually, as an adult. That progressed slowly to sending each other nudes. And there’s a part of me that felt so stupid.”
Determined to turn the situation around, Benson “worked so hard to just erase this.” He adds, “But every time you take down one, it’s like five other sites pop up.”
Things came to a head when Benson lost his job during the pandemic and struggled to afford medical treatments for his 14-year-old lab, Lynn.
“He was barely able to walk, so the only relief was these expensive shots that he would get directly in his back hips,” he explained, noting how the price quickly added up while he was out of work.
“Every time I had to kind of make a choice, like what do I send my money on? Do I keep putting these on credit cards and keep going into debt? I would buy these Lean Cuisine meals because they were like $3 and I was spending so little money on food to just try to be able to afford these shots for Lynn, so that I didn’t have to watch him struggle to get out of bed.”
These financial struggles led Benson to consider creating adult content. He continued, “At the end of the day, I have to be able to provide so he does not have to suffer and I was going to do whatever it takes to not have to make him suffer and that’s why making the decision to do porn was so easy at a certain point. It was like, ‘Okay, if this gives me the opportunity to provide that to him, who gives a s–t what people think?”
While he became successful with his adult content quickly, Benson also recognized what this meant for his acting career. While he was retired, “I knew in the back of my mind that that was officially closing the door on any opportunity I had to work with Disney ever again.”
At the same time, he justified it. “I was like, ‘It’s been 14 years. They’re not bringing back Wizards, you know?’ I let go of the hope that they’d ever bring it back.”
When some of the cast returned to reprise their roles on Wizards Beyond Waverly Place in 2024, Benson admitted he felt “broken” by being left out. As a result, he tried to take down some of his adult content, as a response to the backlash he got from Wizards fans who disapproved of the route he’d taken. Ultimately, he decided to put his content back up and stand firm in being unashamed of his adult career success.
Child Stars Gone Wild premieres Monday, April 27, at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on ID. New episodes of Hollywood Demons premiere weekly and are available to stream on HBO Max.
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health challenges, emotional distress, substance use problems, or just needs to talk, call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org 24/7.
Read the original article on People
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com ’
