'Silicon Valley' Star Thomas Middleditch Accused Of Sexual Misconduct
Silicon Valley’s Thomas Middleditch has been accused of sexual misconduct at a Hollywood club in 2019
Thomas Middleditch, best known for his role as Richard Hendricks on HBO’s Silicon Valley, has been accused of sexual misconduct. His story is part of a larger LA Times expose about a now-closed Hollywood club, where allegations have piled up against the owners and exclusive clientele.
Middleditch’s accuser is Hannah Harding, who was 21 at the time of the alleged incident, in October of 2019. She said she and her girlfriend were approached by Middleditch on the dance floor of the Cloak and Dagger Club during a party. She had met him there previously, and the staff had previously brought concerns about his behavior at the club to its owners. Middleditch has also been criticized for his previous dismissal of the #MeToo movement, calling it “scary” for men.
On that October night, Harding said Middleditch “made lewd sexual overtures toward her and her girlfriend,” and when she turned him down, he kept pursuing her and groped her in front of club employees. She said she went to the club’s management to complain about the attack, but that she wasn’t taken seriously.
“I felt like they dismissed it,” she said. “I told Adam [Bravin, the club’s co-owner] that he needed to listen, that this was not OK.”
Harding said after she complained, she witnessed Middleditch groping another woman at the club. She later received Instagram DMs from him that said, according to the LA Times, “Hannah I had no idea my actions were that weird for you … I know you probably want to just put me on blast as a monster … I don’t expect you to want to be my friend or anything … I am so ashamed I made you uncomfortable.”
Harding said one of the club’s owners also followed up with her a week later in a phone call.
“Adam called me ‘to make sure and get a second opinion on him’ because they didn’t trust my story in the first place. They cared more about famous people at their club than women’s safety,” she said.
The Cloak and Dagger club closed in January, after at least 10 women came forward with allegations about sexual misconduct by its owners and members. Many of the allegations are against Bravin, the co-owner whom Harding said was so dismissive of her story. Bravin allegedly used his position of power as an owner to flirt with staff members, made his staff members feel like they could lose their jobs if they didn’t put up with his advances, and offered promotions in exchange for sex. In a statement given to the LA Times, Bravin said, “as a result of my unconscionable ignorance to an existing power dynamic between me as part-owner of Cloak & Dagger and the members, I came to understand how my flirtatious communication could have been inappropriate and unacceptable.”
The LA Times has chronicled many of those allegations, and Middleditch is the only one of the club’s celebrity clientele who has been accused by name at this time, although allegations have been made against unnamed, “prominent” members of the club. Middleditch has not commented on the allegations.
