Although Lizzo has tried to keep up with her life and show herself as the sassy woman everybody fell in love with, she’s still receiving lawsuits for alleged harassment and promoting a toxic environment at the workplace. She has now received another lawsuit from a former employee.
Right after the first lawsuit issued by some of Lizzo’s former dancers, more employees approached their lawyers sharing similar experiences after working with the singer. However, just now one of them has dared to take legal action. Asha Daniels, a clothing designer, who worked for Lizzo this year, filed a lawsuit at the Los Angeles Superior Court.
Asha Daniel’s Lawsuit Details
Daniel’s papers accuse Lizzo, wardrobe manager Amanda Nomura, tour manager Carlina Gugliotta, and Lizzo’s Big Grrrl Big Touring company of sexual and racial harassment, disability discrimination, assault, illegal retaliatory termination, among other charges. Asha claims that as soon as she was hired in February 2023, she was “almost immediately introduced to a culture of racism and bullying.” As a result, she’s been experiencing “constant anxiety and panic attacks.”
In the documents, Asha Daniels recalls several serious incidents mainly with Lizzo’s wardrobe manager, Nomura. She describes how dancers were forced to change in small areas “with little to no privacy” while males of the team (mostly white), “would lewdy gawk, sneer, and giggle.” Daniels reported this to Nomura, who simply laughed and told her “not to tell anyone else about the issue or try to fix it.”
Daniels, as well as the other dancers that have spoken out, claim situations like this were constant and mainly “a set up to humiliate, degrade, alienate, and in some cases, fire, the Black female performers.” It’s important to note that Lizzo isn’t directly involved in the many nightmarish incidents Daniels quoted however, she claims the singer is guilty of ignoring and, in many cases, promoting this toxic behavior.
Lizzo’s wardrobe manager is also accused of making constant “racist and fatphobic comments,” that include making fun of Lizzo and her dancers behind her back. Daniels added that Nomura often made “offensive stereotypical impressions of Black women” and would also refer to Black women on the team as “dumb, useless, and fat.” More concerningly, once Daniels confronted Nomura she became the target of her constant harassment.
Coincidentally with some of the accusations made by the dancers back in August, Daniels claims that the harassment happened often in official communication lines such as workgroup chats where a backstage manager even dared to “send a photo graphically depicting male genitalia.” Daniels also recalls that Lizzo and her team “openly discussed hiring s3x workers for lewd acts, attending adult shows, and buying hard drugs.” She felt pressured to join said activities.
Daniels was fired roughly a month after her complaints reached Lizzo, which coincides with the dancers’ suit of being unjustly terminated for raising their voices.
Lizzo’s Response to Asha Daniels
Regarding the first lawsuit, Lizzo went on to social media to deem the accusations as “sensational stories.” Now, in a statement sent to Billboard, Lizzo’s spokesperson Stefan Friedman said Lizzo and her team will pay the attention this deserves… none.
“As Lizzo receives a Humanitarian Award tonight from the Black Music Action Coalition for the incredible charitable work she has done to lift all people, an ambulance-chasing lawyer tries to sully this honor by recruiting someone to file a bogus, absurd publicity-stunt lawsuit who, wait for it, never actually met or even spoke with Lizzo. We will pay this as much attention as it deserves. None.”
Although, as mentioned, Asha Daniels doesn’t accuse Lizzo directly of these horrors, it does seem that working for her is more of a hellish experience despite the singer’s urge to refute the allegations.
