Wizards of Waverly Place alum Dan Benson reveals leaked nudes led him to creating content on OnlyFans

Former Disney actor Dan Benson revealed what led him to create adult entertainment on OnlyFans.

The 36-year-old Wizards of Waverly Place alum — who suspects his porn career kept him from restarting — said he wanted to regain control of his nude photos, which were repeatedly leaked online without any compensation to him, because he explains in the documentary TMZ presents: Famous and naked.

Before he launched his OnlyFans account in July 2022, his X-rated photos often appeared on adult websites, and whenever he managed to get them removed from one site, they simply reappeared elsewhere.

Realizing that there was no point in preventing his leaked nudes from spreading, he joined OnlyFans to curate his content and keep all the revenue.

The admission comes after his former Wizards of Waverly Place costar David Henrie spoke about his on-screen reunion with Selena Gomez during the reboot production.

Benson previously played Zeke Beakerman, Justin Russo’s (Henrie) best friend on the Disney hit, appearing in 31 episodes from 2007 to 2012.

In January, Benson expressed his sadness over the likelihood that he won’t be able to reprise his role in the reboot.

“I’m sure I certainly won’t be part of it,” he said TMZ. ‘That’s all on me, I completely understand. I’ve made choices.’

He added, “I took away the opportunity to bring back the character I played when I decided to take this path as an adult content creator.”

Around the same time, Benson also expressed frustration with the awkward timing of Wizards Of Waverly Place’s reboot.

‘Are you joking? I mean, that’s hype! But oh boy, what have I done…’ he wrote on Instagram.

“I’ve been waiting thirteen years and now, ‘Okay, here we go, let’s light the fire. Then become a porn star, let’s reboot Wizards.’

One of Benson’s main concerns was what would happen to his character, seemingly concerned that his explicit career change had disgraced Zeke.

He jokingly said, “What are they doing with Zeke’s character? Just pretend he doesn’t exist? Do they recast him? Oh my God, will there be someone else to play him? No no…’

Fortunately for Benson, however, it seems unlikely that Zeke would have been in the plans for the upcoming pilot.

Only Justin and Alex Russo will return from the original cast, meaning four of the six ever-presents won’t appear – let alone some of their supporting cast.

Deadline reported that the reboot was commissioned on January 18 and said that the new series will continue “after a mysterious incident at WizTech, in which an adult Justin Russo has left his wizard powers behind and opted for a normal, human life with his wife and two sons.

“But he gets a surprise when a powerful young wizard (Brown) in need of training shows up at his door… and Justin must embrace his past to secure the future of the Wizarding World.”

Two years ago, Benson — who has worked on shows like Rick and Morty, Private Practice and Zoey 101 — said he would start his OnlyFans account “to fight for and support the LGBTQ communities who deserve so much better.”

He later revealed that he had ‘turned’ in the career after photos and videos he sent to women online spread and almost cost him his job.

Benson discussed his journey into adult entertainment on his TikTok account last year and echoed his sentiments in the TMZ documentary. He admitted that it all started after he sent intimate photos to women with ulterior motives.

“Basically, when I was on the Wizards Of Waverly Place show, I was getting messages from people all the time. “Some of them were women I found incredibly attractive,” he told his fans.

“It turned out that sending messages to women who turned out not to be who they said they were wasn’t the best idea, because I was sending nude photos to them, and they were taking those nude photos and then posting them on online websites.”

Benson called learning that his private photos had become public “a pretty traumatic experience.” He then began the “difficult task” of trying to delete the photos.

‘And I soon discovered that my nude photos and videos were all over the internet. That was quite a traumatic experience and for years I tried to get rid of them, to get them off the internet, because obviously I didn’t want them on the market, but as you can imagine that was quite a difficult task.’

The images almost cost him a job he held after retiring from acting.

“Well, it turns out that it almost caused me to lose my job later in life, after I quit acting, and it had a very big negative impact on my life.”

Eventually, Benson went from “fighting it” to pursuing a career in adult entertainment.

‘Eventually I decided to stop fighting it and instead go the other way and fully lean into it and build a page and instead of letting these people sell my privacy, you know what I mean, I decided to say, ‘Okay, fuck you, I’m going to sell it myself.”

Overall, Benson has had an incredibly positive experience since starting his new career in 2022.

“So I started that adventure, I had a ton of fun, I met a lot of great people in the adult entertainment industry, and it changed my life for the better.”

Benson charges $20 a month for access to his OnlyFans VIP page. ‘Actor best known for my role as ‘Zeke’ in Disney Channel’s Wizards of Waverly Place. Now I embrace my wild side.” reads his biography.