The meteoric rise of MrBeast (real name Jimmy Donaldson) has been plagued by lawsuits, and the latest one alleges that the popular YouTuber’s workplace is permeated by harassment and toxicity. 

The 24-page filing, which was submitted to a North Carolina court today, details the allegations from a former employee, Lorrayne Mavromatis, against Beast Industries and its related businesses. 

Mavromatis was hired as the company’s head of Instagram before moving up to oversee the company’s social media strategy on all platforms. Her allegations span from 2022 to 2025, and she reports witnessing and experiencing sexual harassment and demeaning behaviour aimed at female employees. 

There was a toxic, boys’ club-like mentality at the company, the filing alleges. Mavromatis says she also had to work during her maternity leave that was approved under the Family and Medical Leave Act, which allows employees job-protected leave to have a baby. (The company says she volunteered to do the work.) Less than three weeks after her return to full-time work, the company terminated her employment. Mavormatis, once a rising star in the company who had been promoted twice, was first demoted and then terminated because she reported what she saw and experienced to MrBeast’s HR, the filing alleges. 

Beast Industries has denied the allegations, calling the lawsuit “clout-chasing” and “built on deliberate misrepresentations and categorically false statements.”

The allegations paint a dark picture of a business that’s been lauded as an example for others to follow on how to build YouTube success and reach a large kids audience. Indeed, producers would love to be able to replicate the sort of start-from-nothing massive global brand success that MrBeast was able to pull off. But the same start-up mentality that helped it grow to be the number-one most-subscribed-to YouTube channel in the world (with 479 million subscribers) is also the cause of many problems its employees faced, the filing alleges. 

One example of this, according to the filing, is that instead of a standard employee guidebook, the company handed out one with messages like: “It’s okay for the boys to be childish” and “[i]f talent wants to draw a dick on the white board in the video or do something stupid, let them.”

MrBeast’s team has not yet responded to Kidscreen‘s request for comment. 

It’s the latest in a string of lawsuits against the company, which includes a 2024 class-action suit brought by five plaintiffs alleging that the set of Amazon’s Beast Games competition series was an unsafe environment. That suit also included allegations of sexual harassment, and claimed that MrBeast’s company failed to provide minimum wages or even times to rest for competitors. He was also sued in 2023 by the company that was operating his virtual restaurant chain MrBeast Burger for allegedly failing to honor contractual obligations, with damages alleged to exceed US$100 million. Those cases are still making their way through the courts.

Pictured is Jimmy Donaldson. Image courtesy of Phillip Faraone / Getty Images for Prime Video.