Wizards of Waverly Place alum says he 'tripped and fell into adult entertainment'
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If you've ever asked what the cast of Wizards of Waverly Place is up to these days, you're in for some interesting answers.
Selena Gomez? She became an acclaimed singer, actress, and cooking show star. Jennifer Stone, who played Harper? She became a nurse and worked through the coronavirus pandemic.
What about Dan Benson, who played Zeke? The former Disney Channel child star is now opening up about how he "tripped and fell into adult entertainment."
Benson, now 35, shared a video on TikTok explaining his career transition. "One of the questions I get asked all the time is, 'What? Huh? What do you mean? No. How?'" he said in the clip. "So anyway, I thought I'd take just a minute to explain how I kind of tripped and fell into adult entertainment."
Dan Benson/Instagram ; Bruce Birmelin/ Disney Channel via Getty Dan Benson explains his jump from Disney's 'Wizards of Waverly Place' to adult entertainment.
His story starts on Wizards of Waverly Place, which first aired in 2007 when Benson was 20 years old. The actor appeared on the Disney Channel original until he was 25.
"I would get messages from people all of the time, some of those being women that I found incredibly attractive. It turns out, messaging those women, who turned out not to be who they said they were, turned out to be not the best idea," Benson said.
Benson admitted to sending nude photos and videos to these women, who then posted those nudes onto websites. "That was a pretty traumatic experience, and for years I went about trying to get rid of them, get them off the internet, 'cause obviously I did not want them out there," he continued. "But, as you can imagine, that was a pretty difficult task."
"It had a very big, negative impact on my life," said Benson, whose last credited role was in the 2018 comedy/thriller Killing Diaz. "Eventually, I decided to stop fighting against it and instead go the other direction and completely lean into it and build out a page. And instead of letting these people sell my privacy, my... you know what I mean, I decided to say, 'Alright, screw you. I'm gonna sell it myself.'"
Benson mentioned that he started this venture in 2022 and has been having "a tremendous amount of fun."
"I've met a lot of great people in the adult entertainment industry, and it's changed my life for the better," he said.
Benson is now active on OnlyFans. Why is he sharing all this? He doesn't really know. He just knows that he wants to make "authentic" content. "What are you gonna do? Sometimes you have to roll with the punches," he concluded. "I highly suggest you do."
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