MrBeast is YouTube's most famous creator. Now he faces a lawsuit alleging he fostered 'unsafe' work conditions, sexual harassment on set of new show.

Jimmy Donaldson, better known by his YouTube username MrBeast, has faced several controversies over the past week surrounding his own alleged behavior and the alleged behavior of his collaborators.

Now Donaldson, 26, faces a class action lawsuit against his production company for his reality competition show, Beast Games. Amazon, which was going to stream the show on its Amazon Prime Video platform, is also named in the lawsuit.

Five contestants on the show claim in a 54-page document, obtained by Variety, that they were denied payment and were forced to work and film in "unreasonable, unsafe, and unlawful employment conditions" with little food and inadequate access to "hygienic products or medical care."

There were also allegations of sexual harassment on the set, but the specifics of the claims are redacted in the filing.

Donaldson is the biggest YouTuber in the world. He boasts a subscriber count of 309 million and has produced over 800 videos on the platform. He’s been described as “the Willy Wonka of YouTube,” and his empire is worth an estimated $700 million.

Donaldson has spent years crafting a family-friendly, clean image for himself and his YouTube channel. Kids love him.

While he has dealt with backlash in the past, including being accused of “poverty porn” for some of his more philanthropic videos like “1,000 Blind People See for the First Time” — the current allegations are some of the most serious he’s faced. It’s also an indication that the facade of his empire is starting to crack.

Who is MrBeast?

The MrBeast channel is mostly dedicated to videos of highly produced and elaborate pranks, competitions and stunts. But Donaldson is arguably most well known for the copious amount of cash he hands out to fans and video participants.

In 2022, the YouTube channel Alien Art Charts spent a month watching all of Donaldson’s videos and estimated Donaldson had given away over $8 million in the 10 years since he started MrBeast. The number does not include the time he gifted his 100,000,000th subscriber a private island worth $2 million or when he split $1 million among 100 participants in an “extreme hide-and-seek” challenge, both of which occurred after the Alien Art Chart’s analysis video was published.

His most viral video, inspired by the hit Netflix series Squid Game, is a (less violent) re-creation of the show’s competition premise with a $456,000 prize and amassed more than 642 million views.

He told Time in February that each of his videos makes “a couple million in ad revenue, a couple million in brand deals.” That income does not include his offline pursuits, like his snack brand Feastibles.

Allegations of toxic work environments on MrBeast sets

On Aug. 2, the New York Times interviewed more than a dozen contestants on an upcoming reality competition show, Beast Games, which Donaldson and Amazon MGM Studios produce. The contestants alleged they were not fed, with one person claiming she wasn't provided with any meals for over 20 hours.

Contestants who spoke with the outlet also claimed there was no proper medical care, which resulted in people getting seriously injured during physical challenges and passing out. (One participant went on the record with the Associated Press and said the conditions on the show’s set met her expectations and did not surprise her.)

On Aug. 7, a YouTube account with the username DogPack404 uploaded a video detailing their alleged past work experiences with MrBeast. It got more than 4 million views in less than 12 hours.

It was the second video published by the account. In it, the YouTuber characterizes Donaldson a “fraud” and a “sociopath.”

In the video, DogPack404 interviewed another former employee, Jack Weddle, who said he worked for MrBeast from 2019 to 2020 and has posted his own YouTube videos about his experience. Weddle said that in 2021 he was asked back to participate in a solitary confinement challenge in which he was asked to stay in an isolated room for 30 days.

“I got no access to the sun, I got no access to a clock,” Weddle said in the video. “The lights are on me all the time. I wasn’t sleeping, I couldn’t sleep. I have insomnia problems now. They might have started there.”

Weddle said the video never got published. He claimed other producers on Donaldson’s team tried to stop the shoot several times out of concern for his health, but it never stopped until what he describes as his breaking point when Donaldson challenged him to run a marathon on a treadmill.

Donaldson has not publicly responded to any of the allegations about poor filming conditions for participants.

Fans stunned by MrBeast’s past ‘inappropriate’ comments

Donaldson doesn’t allow swearing in his YouTube videos — he bleeps out words if one of his video guests slips up. So it was shocking for some fans when recently resurfaced audio from 2017 revealed that he made racially insensitive and inappropriate comments.

In a July 24 post on X, a YouTuber shared a clip of Donaldson making a joke to a viewer about paying “like $300” for a Black person. In another reshared clip from a 2017 podcast interview, Donaldson asks a friend whether he would have sex with the rapper Bhad Bhabie, who was 14 years old at the time.

Neither Donaldson nor his talent agency, Kovert Creative, responded to Yahoo Entertainment’s requests for comment.

“When Jimmy was a teenager he acted like many kids and used inappropriate language while trying to be funny,” a spokesperson for Donaldson told the Associated Press about the resurfaced clips. “Over the years he has repeatedly apologized and has learned that increasing influence comes with increased responsibility to be more aware and more sensitive to the power of language.”

MrBeast’s longtime collaborator accused of sexual misconduct

Around the same time Donaldson’s old comments circulated on social media, another controversy started bubbling up. This time it involved Donaldson’s longtime collaborator Ava Kris Tyson.

On July 23, Tyson announced she was leaving her role as one of the co-hosts on the MrBeast channel after nine years. Tyson and Donaldson were childhood friends, and Donaldson stood up for Tyson after she became the target of online harassment following her transition in 2023.

Tyson said in a post on X, “I humbly apologise to anyone I have hurt with my unacceptable social media posts, past actions, and to those who may feel betrayed by how I used to act online.”

One day later, accusations that Tyson had been sending inappropriate messages to minors over the messaging platform Discord were made public. Nathan Weyman, who worked as a moderator on Tyson’s Discord channel when he was 15, claimed in a video he shared on X that Tyson “used me, manipulated me and did very inappropriate things with me.”

Donaldson released his own statement the following day, acknowledging the “serious allegations” against Tyson and saying he was “disgusted and opposed to such unacceptable acts.”

“I have been focused on hiring an independent third party to conduct a thorough investigation to ensure I have all the facts,” Donaldson wrote. “I’ve seen enough online and taken immediate action to remove Ava from the company, my channel and any association with MrBeast.”

On July 27, a woman who goes by Jess on X posted a multipart thread sharing her own experience with Tyson. According to her account, the two met online and Tyson promised to get Jess a job with MrBeast. In the meantime, Jess alleged they started to have a virtual, sexual relationship because, as Jess wrote, “I always felt like I had to say yes if I wanted to be in a video or get a job.”

Jess claimed she was hired to be Tyson’s assistant and moved in with her but that she “started to feel like I was being coerced.”

While employed as Tyson’s assistant, Jess accused Tyson of sexually assaulting her in their home. Almost a year later, in July, Jess claimed she quit and told the MrBeast HR team what happened. She alleged that her account to the HR team was what pushed Donaldson to launch an investigation.