Is this comedy’s MeToo moment? How Russell Brand’s alleged lewd behaviour was ‘open secret’ in the industry and female stand-ups ‘set up WhatsApp group to warn one another about sexual predators’ in showbusiness

Claims that Russell Brand was a sexual predator were an ‘open secret’ in the comedy world and today others were named as potential perpetrators as the industry’s MeToo moment appears to have begun.

Brand – who denies any illegality – was this weekend charged with rape and sexual assault between 2006 and 2013.

Former colleagues who had worked with him have also made lurid claims about his behaviour, including acting as ‘his pimps’ to pass messages to attractive members of the public.

But while the details of the allegations may have come as a shock to many of his fans, they are not entirely unexpected within the industry and female comics in particular.

In fact, Brand’s name is chillingly just one of many on a “blacklist” shared by women working in comedy who warn each other about possible sexual predators.

MailOnline can reveal that at least five more comedians have been mentioned in the conversations.

The number includes famous stars who have appeared on television, radio and stage.

Some are still performing at the highest levels in the industry, while others have disappeared from view over the past decade.

The allegations against them range from stalking to violence against women and sexually assaulting women.

MailOnline has not named them because it has not yet been possible to verify the claims.

In the Dispatches documentary that first revealed the allegations against Brand, comedian Daniel Sloss claimed women would warn each other about him.

He told the show that there were “a lot of stories of varying seriousness” about Brand that came from a number of different people on the comedy circuit.

Mr Sloss said he was often talked about in public, with many people on the comedy circuit aware of his alleged offensive and coercive behaviour.

He added that female comedians even talked about him in WhatsApp groups, warning each other which comedians to avoid.

He said: ‘For many, many years women have been warning each other about Russell.’

Comedian Stevie Martin first announced the existence of the WhatsApp group back in 2020, which discussed predatory male comics and promoters.

She was invited to join the group in 2018, which was called the Home Safe Collective and was originally set up to help women get home safely from the Edinburgh Fringe.

But it became much more in the wake of the MeToo movement that heralded the unmasking of Harvey Weinstein as a sexual abuser and rapist.

She told the Telegraph in 2020: ‘From rape to unwanted fondling in the green room to using alcohol to coerce without consent, women began sharing their stories – and a WhatsApp-based blacklist of predatory male comics began circulating and promoters. It grows every day.

“The path to said primetime entertainment TV shows seems littered with, at worst, sexual abuse and, at best, a corrosive environment.”

‘I recently heard about a male comedian who paid other male comedians (performing at a comedy night he organised) with phone numbers of female comedians, instead of cash. How are we supposed to feel respected, and even part of a community that seems to view us as a sport?’

Complaints about comedians never gained the momentum from Hollywood and many of those accused returned to work or were never identified.

But in recent months, the tide has turned, thanks in large part to the efforts of female comedians and their spotlight on the horrific problem.

Katherine Ryan previously claimed to have told a comedian ‘to his face’ that he was a sexual predator and that the allegations against the person were an ‘open secret’.

The Canadian comedian and writer told Louis Theroux that she confronted the unnamed man while they were working together on a public TV show “over and over again.”

Speaking in 2022, the 40-year-old said she had no qualms about that because she had decided to handle it “like a man” – although the confrontation itself was later removed from the broadcast.

In her conversation with Theroux, Ms Ryan claimed that she had been criticized afterwards for not publicly naming the person in question, but said that just talking about him was a “litigious minefield” because he had “very good lawyers”.

The comedian added that it was “not my story to tell” but that she believed the allegations as sources “very credible.”

Her friend Sara Pascoe also told in 2022 how she reported a celebrity to television bosses after a fan told her he had raped her after seeing them on a show together.

The writer and comedian revealed that she received the tip after the alleged victim saw them appear on the same programme.

Ms Pascoe said she was contacted with the information, which she passed on to bosses.

Speaking about the new Amazon Prime series Backstage With Katherine Ryan, she said: ‘Have you ever been doing a job and someone contacted you and said, “That’s my rapist”?

“I had it recently at a job where I had to go to the station, and it’s that whole thing because you have such a sense of responsibility, but you also want it to be handled properly… it’s so complicated.”

Recently, Pascoe warned that there was more than that a prominent sexual predator in show business and they were terrified of being exposed.

But she says they are not thriving. They are all ‘scared’. It’s just a matter of time,” she says.

‘They have not been named yet because no one wants this to happen. It’s not good for the victims and survivors, or for the industry. But they don’t flourish. They are afraid.’