Colleen Ballinger accused of racist and inappropriate behaviour by Haters Back Off assistant

3 July 2023, 17:18

Analysing Colleen Ballinger's Ukulele Apology Video | YouTuber News

By Sam Prance

A former employee who worked on Haters Back Off has spoken out against the Miranda Sings performer.

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Colleen Ballinger has been accused of racist and inappropriate behaviour by a PA who worked on the set of Haters Back Off.

Over the past few weeks, Colleen Ballinger has come under fire after multiple former fans have accused her of inappropriate behaviour. In 2020, Adam McIntyre accused Colleen of various things, including sending him lingerie when he was 13 years old. Colleen addressed those accusations at the time but Adam's words have now resurfaced alongside new allegations.

Last week (28), Colleen posted a video in which she responds to the allegations via a song. The video went viral with many people calling Colleen out for making light of the allegations and not apologising. She sings: "It doesn't matter that the things aren't true. Everyone just believes that you are the type of person who manipulates and abuses children."

Now, April Koro Quioh, who worked as a writers’ assistant, a showrunner’s assistant and a writers’ PA on Colleen's Netflix show Haters Back Off, has published a new piece on their personal website in which they criticise Colleen's behaviour.

Colleen Ballinger accused of racist and inappropriate behaviour by Haters Back Off assistant. Picture: Colleen Vlogs via YouTube, Netflix

April, who is Black, alleges that Colleen used the N-word on set. She says: "I recall overhearing her once brag that a creator was being ‘canceled’ for saying the n-word (and if you think she went with ‘N-word’ instead of hitting that hard ‘r,’ then you haven’t been paying attention) and that she would never be stupid enough to get caught doing something like that."

April also alleges that Colleen would make racial jokes on set and even allegedly said that having "POC background actors" in the show was "distracting". Elsewhere, Colleen allegedly asked that an Asian food market on set was redecorated as a bodega. She allegedly asked for the "Asian shit" to be removed from the store set-piece.

Describing Colleen's behaviour in general, April writes that she "had a knack for making ‘funny,’ biting comments about the people around her, and since we all had her to thank for our jobs, we were forced to just go with it. She saw no issue with commenting on my hair, or my clothes, or asking about my personal life. Her lack of boundaries was remarkable."

April adds that she also felt uncomfortable with the way that Colleen allegedly pushed for Miranda and Uncle Jim to have a sexualised relationship in the show. While the two characters never had sex, there were numerous jokes about how Uncle Jim fancied Miranda with Miranda being clueless to his attraction.

April then explains: "It all felt deeply wrong — she would show us photos of the packed rows of smiling children who had attended her show the night before, and in the same breath, spend hours trying to think of a way to show Miranda and Uncle Jim all but having actual sex on screen."

Miranda Sings and Uncle Jim in Haters Back Off. Picture: Netflix

At the end of the piece, April speaks out in support of those who have made allegations against Colleen. She writes: "While I cannot speak to the specific allegations against Colleen Ballinger — I stand with every single one of the children and young adults who have bravely shared their experiences in the past few weeks."

Colleen is yet to address April's claims. We shall update you if she does.