Steven Crowder's Ex-Staffers Add More Fuel to a Flaming Dumpster Pile of Accusations

Last week looked like a bad one for conservative pundit Steven Crowder, whose Louder With Crowder show broadcasts online from a studio in Dallas. This new week isn't looking any better.

Crowder announced on April 25 that he and wife Hilary were in the middle of a divorce. This prompted backlash on social media when he said in his announcement, "No, this was not my choice. My then-wife decided she did not want to be married anymore and in the state of Texas, that is completely permitted."

Two days later, a security camera video from the couple's home leaked, showing Crowder puffing on a cigar and berating his 8-month pregnant wife for refusing to "do wifely things" like give their dogs toxic medication, telling her "I don't love you" and to "become someone ... wife-worthy."

Now several ex-employees of the Louder With Crowder online channel, including his former co-host, comedian Dave Landau, are speaking out against what they claim is an abusive and hateful atmosphere the conservative host created in the office. The New York Post published interviews with employees without revealing their identities because they were afraid of backlash or had nondisclosure agreements they signed with his company, according to the article.

The former employees who worked for Crowder from 2016 through 2022 told the Post that Crowder would scream at the people who worked for him, including his own father, Darrin, in front of other employees. One of the ex-employees described Steven Crowder's toxic personality as "like a yo-yo," veering from kind to "volatile."

Several of the unnamed sources described an assignment they received in 2017 to write a 30-minute special that spoofed Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. The project required more than 100 hours of work in a week and required some staff members to sleep in the office without overtime pay. During one text message thread, Crowder allegedly told the staff to sleep in and come into the office later. One of the employees replied, "sleep lol."

Crowders's answer? "Be a little grateful buddy."

The staffers reported that when projects and bookings Crowder tried to micromanage failed or never materialized, he would rip into them and blame them for the foul-up. In one alleged instance, Crowder's assistant delivered to staff a copy of a book called Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy Seals Lead and Win by Jocko Willink. This came after a failed project for which Crowder would not take ownership.

"We all thought we were going to get an apology but we got a book," one former staffer told the New York Post. "It was like a sitcom."

Six of Crowder's former staffers also described at least four instances when he exposed his genitalia in the office and during trips to and from live events in front of his staff. One of the staffers says Crowder exposed himself twice to former producer Jared Monroe, known on-air to his fans as "Not Gay Jared." This first came during a sketch shoot in the office in 2017, and the second in 2018 during a trip from a college gig in which Crowder "dropped his junk on top of [former producer] Jared's shoulder" while Monroe slept. Two more employees told the paper that Crowder exposed himself two more times in the office to his assistant John Goodman and to Landau.

"At first, I took it as him trying to be friendly or one of the guys," the staffer told the Post. "Now I see it was a power play."
Landau appeared on the PodcastOne series Your Welcome With Michael Malice [sic] and said he parted ways with Crowder's show and company once he no longer had a contract because of Crowder's micromanaging and shouting. Landau described how Crowder tried to control what he would say on the air and said Crowder prevented him from traveling to see his family, who did not live in Dallas, and from performing stand-up shows on weekends by giving him excessive work. He says some of the working requirements in his contract included relocating his family to Dallas and limiting his off-time to "can't be gone any more than third weekends," he says.

Crowder also wanted to offer Landau his own weekly show but without paying him extra money, which hurt him financially since he was prevented from performing shows on his own.

"That's what bothered me," Landau says, "the 'I own you' aspect."

Landau says Crowder had a special light installed in the studio for their daily show, which Landau described as a "Dave, don't talk button." Crowder had control of the light from his desk so he could dictate the conversations they had on-air and always have the last word on his show.

"It was four lights in a row and when it was hit, I wasn't supposed to talk," Landau said.

Landau also says Crowder made a habit of recording conversations in and around the office. He didn't think anything of it until last January when the company started negotiating contracts to broadcast with the conservative news studio The Daily Wire. Crowder was unhappy with the $50 million opening offer, calling it "a slave wage" due to clauses that would reduce his pay if YouTube took down or de-monetized his videos for violating its user agreements. Crowder recorded a phone conversation with Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing about his contract and played it on the air and on a video titled "I didn't want to do this...".

The Daily Wire pulled its offer and responded to Crowder's accusations with its own video, prompting more online backlash from both sides of the conservative social-media sphere. Landau quit shortly after the episode and objected to Crowder playing the recorded conversation, saying, "It bothered me because I would never record my friend and play it on the air."