Roiland’s former fans and dates described disturbing interactions with the animator, with many playing out over texts. One woman said the ‘Rick and Morty’ creator sexually assaulted her, another said she was left ‘traumatized.’ (Warning: This article contains expclicit language.)

In the years following the 2013 debut of Adult Swim’s cartoon phenomenon “Rick and Morty,” its star and co-creator Justin Roiland became a titan of the animation and video game industry and a rock star of youth counterculture. His artistic style and caricatures became ubiquitous in cannabis culture, and his career expanded into producing other animated series, creating NFTs and leading a virtual reality gaming studio. In 2017, a “Rick and Morty” collaboration with McDonald’s led to such a viral frenzy that police had to be called to at least two locations.

But as he partied with Los Angeles’ superstars and traveled the country for conventions, he also found he could use his fame to strike up conversations and develop relationships with young fans, including some who were underage. This is according to interviews with 11 women and nonbinary people who shared thousands of messages with Roiland from 2013 to 2022 — with nine of the people saying he turned the exchanges sexual. Of those nine people, three said they were 16 when they started talking to Roiland. To corroborate their stories, the 11 women and nonbinary people also shared pictures, videos, social media posts, emails, and plane ticket and Uber receipts with NBC News.

Warning: Lengthy and graphic details

  • @UsernameIsTooLon
    8•1 year ago

    I think there’s too much sexual supression, especially through religion. The 2nd largest serial killer in the world was a paedo because he knew he liked boys at a young age but due to Christianity having a big emphasis on don’t be gay, he suppressed those urges and they came back out later in life, except he was still attracted to the boys at the age he realized he was gay.

    Girls can look “cute” but if you’re well integrated into society in the first place, you can find them attractive, but not sexually attractive if that makes sense.

    • @Orbit79
      14•1 year ago

      I think there is too much sexual suppression in the US. Here in Denmark the age of consent is 15, and I honestly think it is a much safer place for my daughter than the US.

      • @_bac
        2•1 year ago

        Same here in Slovenia. I have two early teenage daughters and will have no problem with them being responsibly sexual with partners of same age or a couple years older when they are 15 if they want to. We will talk about everything of course. In america there seems to be some cognitive dissonance - everything is sexualized but also forbidden.