A.J. Calloway Is Fired From Extra Following Sexual Assault Investigation

Warner Bros. has officially cut ties with Extra host A.J. Calloway after investigating multiple claims of sexual assault made against him last year.

In a statement released Wednesday, a rep wrote that “The company has investigated the claims made into Mr. Calloway’s conduct and he and the company have mutually agreed to part ways.”

Calloway, who denied the allegations, was suspended with pay in February pending an internal review, though the company wrote at the time that “To date, we have found nothing to suggest that Mr. Calloway has ever engaged in workplace misconduct.”

Last year, domestic violence activist and author Sil Lai Abrams accused Calloway of sexually assaulting her in 2006. Though she’d filed a police report alleging forcible touching, the charges against him were ultimately dropped on “procedural grounds.”

Abrams wrote about the alleged incident in her 2007 book, No More Drama, anonymizing Calloway as “well-spoken B-list celebrity Ray.” In November of 2017, Abrams approached MSNBC’s Joy Reid about going public with the names of her alleged abusers. (In addition to Calloway, Abrams said she was also assaulted by Russell Simmons in the mid ‘90s.) But after several months of stringing Abrams along, MSNBC reportedly killed the story; Calloway’s name was only mentioned after it was finally picked up by the Hollywood Reporter last June.

Following the release of Abrams’s account, two more women told the Daily Beast that Calloway had sexually assaulted them as well. One of the women, identified as Talia, told the outlet that Calloway forced himself on her after a party, which she said culminated in him ejaculating on her hands. Talia said that up until Abrams’ story was released, she’d never mentioned the incident.

“I never wanted to tell anyone because I didn’t think people would believe me because he was a celebrity and I was just a regular girl,” she said. “I thought that it’s just one of those situations that happen and you just have to move forward with your life.”

That was until she saw the article about Calloway featuring Sil Lai Abrams’ testimony. “When I saw it and I read what happened to Miss Abrams, I knew right then and there she wasn’t lying. I was 150 percent sure that she wasn’t lying because what she described was almost identical to what happened to me.”

Six women had accused Calloway of sexual misconduct by February, which is when he was suspended.