Where is former child actor Brandi from ‘Quiet on Set’ now?
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Investigation Discovery
- ID’s docuseries “Quiet on Set” reveals predatory behavior behind the scenes at Nickelodeon.
- One child actor quit the industry after production assistant Jason Handy sent her explicit material.
- The girl is referred to as Brandi in the docuseries and it’s unknown what happened to her afterward.
Investigation Discovery’s docuseries “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” digs deep into the disturbing and predatory behavior that happened behind the scenes at Nickelodeon. The docuseries, initially released in four parts, will return with an additional fifth episode airing on ID on Sunday, April 7.
Among the numerous horrifying revelations is one involving a former child actor referred to as Brandi.
Brandi, believed to be an alias, landed a job as a performer at Nickelodeon, but her aspirations for stardom came to a halt after a production assistant named Jason Handy sent her explicit material.
Although Brandi didn’t appear in “Quiet on Set,” her mom, who goes by MJ, shared her daughter’s story in episode two of the docuseries.
Here’s everything to know about Brandi and what happened to her since she left Hollywood.
Brandi made an appearance on ‘The Amanda Show’ when she was 11 years old
Investigation Discovery
The docuseries didn’t indicate that aliases were used, but it’s likely that a different name was utilized to protect Brandi’s real identity — and possibly her mom’s, too.
As seen in “Quiet on Set,” Brandi had a minor part in a Judge Trudy skit during season two, episode 12 of sketch comedy series “The Amanda Show.” She wore overalls, a white bucket hat, and glasses in the scene.
None of the guest stars or featured actors listed in the end credits of “The Amanda Show” episode is named Brandi, which suggests that Brandi is an alias or that Brandi wasn’t credited. When Business Insider looked up the names in the “Amanda Show” end credits on IMDb, none of them matched the trajectory of Brandi as outlined in the docuseries.
MJ described her daughter as “very outgoing,” “full of life,” and fascinated with shows on Nickelodeon and Disney Channel. Brandi was a big fan of “The Amanda Show,” starring Amanda Bynes, so the child was thrilled when she booked an appearance as an extra in a classroom scene.
Nickelodeon
According to MJ, parents weren’t allowed on set. Instead, Handy guided the child actors there. MJ said that Handy was friendly and charismatic, and got close with the kids and parents. He exchanged phone numbers and email addresses with them, including Brandi.
Brandi’s mom said her daughter got a lewd email from PA Jason Handy
About a week after her appearance on “The Amanda Show,” Handy sent Brandi an “innocent” email about the shows he was working on. That led to more correspondences, which MJ wasn’t concerned about until a few months later when Brandi read an email, abruptly shut her computer, and ran to her room crying.
“It was a picture of him naked masturbating, and he said he had sent it to her because he wanted her to see that he was thinking of her,” MJ said.
MJ said she grappled with notifying the authorities out of fear that she’d be judged as a bad parent.
“I finally told myself, ‘I can’t call the police. All I can do is make sure I keep her far away from him,'” MJ said.
Investigation Discovery
In April 2003, Handy, then 28, was arrested on charges of lewd acts with children. According to the Los Angeles Police Department, Handy kissed and touched a 9-year-old girl in Glendale, California. The police investigation also revealed that there were more children in LA, Michigan, and North Carolina that Handy preyed on.
Per “Quiet on Set,” the police searched Handy’s home and uncovered disturbing journal entries in which he described himself as a “full-blown” pedophile. They found over 10,000 images of child pornography, including 1,768 images of young girls in erotic poses, 238 images of young girls in sexually explicit poses, and two images of girls engaged in bondage activity.
There were also video files of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and Ziploc bags with girls’ names on them, containing “tokens.”
The police contacted MJ after seeing a bag with Brandi’s name on it, filled with letters that she had written. Other bags contained the underwear of other girls, including a 7-year-old.
MJ said that many parents of the children didn’t want to be involved in the investigation, but she agreed to let Brandi talk to the detectives in the hopes that they could serve justice and get closure.
Handy pleaded no contest in 2004 and was sentenced to six years in prison on two felony counts, for lewd acts with a child under 14 and for distributing sexually explicit material, and one misdemeanor charge.
Brandi quit the entertainment industry after her experience
Investigation Discovery
“She left the business and never returned,” MJ said.
“I no longer trusted anybody with children in this industry,” she added. “I felt abandoned. There was never any apology to Brandi herself for what happened. Everything got swept under the rug.”
Brandi’s current whereabouts are unknown, but people on TikTok have been theorizing about what happened to her.
One theory is that she’s 10-time Grammy winner Brandi Carlile, which doesn’t make sense because the singer doesn’t have a history of appearing on Nickelodeon as a kid and her age doesn’t align with Brandi’s at the time of the incident.
Another theory is that Business Insider reporter Kate Taylor, who appeared in “Quiet on Set” and served as an executive producer, is actually Brandi. Taylor has debunked the theory. She’s not a former child actor; Taylor is part of the docuseries because she’s a journalist for BI who previously published an investigation on former Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider.
