An actress has come forward on TikTok to share her account of what she described as a deeply troubling experience at a film production casting call in 2026, where she claims she and other women, some as young as 14, were allegedly connected to a man convicted of sex crimes against minors and young women.
Renée Simms, who goes by @imreneesimms on TikTok, posted a video that had received over 404,900 views and more than 24,800 likes at the time of writing. In it, she said that on May 17, 2026, she responded to a casting call on Backstage for a project titled Your Best Nightmare, posted by a company called TheBFly.co.
Simms said she was asked to attend three separate Zoom calls with the company. The first two covered the company’s upcoming projects and goals, she said. But during the third call, she claimed, the company introduced their lead investor, Anand Jon Alexander, a model and fashion designer who had appeared on America’s Next Top Model.
Simms says she found out about the lead investor and conditions on set
According to Simms, Alexander, whom she referred to throughout the video as “AJ”, was convicted in 2009 of 16 counts of rape, molestation, and harassment involving minors and young adult women. She said the company described him only as “controversial” without disclosing the nature of his conviction, and instead sent cast members a podcast and an article that she said portrayed his case as a victim story.
@imreneesimms Pls share with everyone you can <3 @Chloe Lamarche @emilie #truecrime #storytime #actor #foryoupage #fyp Bfly.co Anand Jon Alexander
♬ original sound – Renée Simms
When Simms arrived on set, she said the environment was chaotic and unprofessional, with a Canon camera hanging from the director’s neck and no professional equipment in sight. She identified the people who appeared to be in charge as Eliana Violet, Madeline Madelex, and a director named Monet.
Simms said she learned from other cast members that all the girls who had traveled from out of state or out of the country had paid for their own flights and were reportedly required to share a single hotel room, ten girls in total. The project, she said, was unpaid and voluntary. While minors had parents accompanying them, she claimed parents were not always present on set.
On the first day, Simms alleged, the entire group, including the minors, was placed on a speakerphone call with Alexander. She said the audio was too muffled to make out what was being said. That same day, she said she was told she had been selected to perform live on stage, but after waiting until 8 PM with no update, she left.
On what was meant to be her last day, Simms said she began exchanging contact information with the other cast members, at which point she claimed she was pulled aside and told to stop contacting the other actors. She said she declined, citing networking and friendships as her reasons, and that those in charge insisted it was for everyone’s safety.
Simms also recounted an incident involving a minor whose mother was not on set to pick her up. After getting the mother’s permission to stay with the girl, she said a woman identified as Elena began physically moving the minor away from her. Simms said she asserted the mother’s permission and was eventually allowed to stay.
Following these events, Simms said the minor created a post on Reddit’s r/acting community, which gained significant attention. According to Simms, they were urged by commenters to contact a human trafficking hotline and local authorities, which both of them allegedly did.
Through that process, she claimed, they were told that TheBFly.co was already under FBI investigation for human trafficking. She said a local deputy took both of their accounts, visited the hotel, and that Elena was reportedly verbally aggressive with him, repeatedly saying, “I am going to get a lawyer.”
Simms also described helping another cast member, whom she identified as Chloe, leave the situation. Chloe allegedly could not leave on her own because her return flight was not booked for another week, and other girls were said to be persuading her to stay. Chloe reportedly used a cover story to take an Uber to a different hotel, where Simms picked her up.
Among the most serious claims in the video, Simms alleged that Alexander had made sexual requests of some of the adult women involved, including asking one to send an explicit video as part of her initial audition, and instructing another to appear on a video call in her underwear and “show off her a**.”
Simms said the women were not asked about their ages before these requests were made, and that she was uncertain whether similar requests had been made to any underage participants. In another case drawing public attention, a man was arrested after a video allegedly showing child abuse surfaced online and sparked widespread controversy.
“This is a very real thing that happens to a lot of girls, and it could have gotten so much further with me and my friends,” Simms said in the video. She stated she was working with local police, the FBI, and other legal representatives, and urged actors to carefully vet any projects they sign up for. In a separate case, authorities responding to an unrelated call discovered a woman allegedly held captive in a basement for two years, highlighting how some victims are unable to leave on their own.
The video drew a strong response in the comments section. “You’re very brave for speaking out and for doing your best to protect the minors that were there! So sorry you had to go through that!” wrote one viewer.
Another commented, “Wow this is insane. I’m proud of you for speaking out,” while another added, “Please, don’t stop talking about this.” One commenter asked whether the project had been a union production, to which another user replied that it was “unpaid non union etc.”
As of the time of publication, TheBFly.co, Eliana Violet and Anand Jon Alexander had not made any public comment on the matter.
