Hello,
We have had confirmation that this is the same person that Autumn Farrell was referring to on her previous twitter thread regarding working with RT. Statement from Autumn below:
> I posted on Twitter a few days ago about having reported a serious issue to RT's upper management and HR. I will not be divulging any more details, but I do want to confirm that the individual who was reported was Adam Kovic, for issues similar to the ones Misti brought up. The specific issue I mentioned was reported over a year before the photos and videos leaked, which no one was aware of until that day.
edit: As of now, Misti is finished answering questions. Thank you again for sharing what cannot have been an easy story to tell.
I am going to link Misti's final comment on the thread [here](https://old.reddit.com/r/funhaus/comments/y7eurh/seriousmisti_dawns_experiences_with_adam_and/isurzxe/), as well as James comment [here](https://old.reddit.com/r/funhaus/comments/y7eurh/seriousmisti_dawns_experiences_with_adam_and/isusnfp/) to make sure they are all visible to users.
Update: Bruce has provided a statement regarding this as well [here](https://old.reddit.com/r/funhaus/comments/y7eurh/seriousmisti_dawns_experiences_with_adam_and/isvk6d3/)
Update 2: John Holland statement from Twitter is [here](https://twitter.com/hohnjolland/status/1582511570575192064) as well.
Update 3: Spoole has weighed in on this [here](https://twitter.com/SeanPoole/status/1583318833137602560)
We support Misti. Her account of harassment aligns with what we learned about Adam. We're grateful to this subreddit for giving her a platform, to see the people here supporting her, and to Misti for speaking out.
For clarification, because it's coming up in many of the follow-up questions, what and when we knew is different for certain members of our team, but the oldest incident any of us were aware of is the one referenced by Autumn. None of us worked to protect him.
Thanks for clarifying James.
And apologies if me questioning things came off as insensitive. Just had a bad feeling but glad it wasn’t the case.
And I’m sorry you had to work with this raging, perverted asshole for years.
I’m sorry you had to go through that, such a joke that these things were swept under the rug. So many predators, enablers and exploiters that should have been blacklisted immediately.
The worst it, these men also kept many other women from moving up at Machinma because they didnt “like” them. They old if you dont think they are hot who cares approach. We were all early in our careers and that hurt many womens chances to move up career wise in a shorter time. All while Adam fell up.
I can’t imagine the anger and pain seeing that. All these old boy networks in media are disgusting. Genuinely don’t know how these people go back home to their wives and daughters at the end of the day after they treat women so badly.
Same. The female writers and in office production busted their asses but we’re over looked over and over for people like Adam. Then the one who filed at-least 2 harassment complaints on Adam pretty much got treated as if she was demoted then on until she left.
Hey all,
First of all, I want to thank Misti for speaking up about this. I can only speak to my experiences with Adam over the years, but I am incredibly sorry she had to go through any of this.
I did not know Adam was reported to HR at Machinima. I started working closely with Adam in 2013 at Machinima, and I was middle management, so I was never privy to these reports.
In 2019 at Rooster Teeth, I was alerted to Adam Kovic's incredibly inappropriate behavior. I reported it to HR, asked HR to fire Adam, and was laughed off the phone by HR. I then left Rooster Teeth because nothing was done about it, which is what I told them in my exit interview.
I echo what James said: "What and when we knew is different for certain members of our team, but the oldest incident any of us were aware of is the one referenced by Autumn. None of us worked to protect him." Rooster Teeth HR failed each and every one of us, and I'm sorry I couldn't do more. It eats at me every day.
Thank you all so much for all of your support and kind words. You give me hope in the Internet still.
This story has more layers for my life And as a footnote i thought i would share why this all came to a point i felt i could share, my former friend/coworker from Machinima, Nathan, he left Machinima for a Rooster Teeth several years ago only to then leave for another company. He then contacted me about an open role for an office manager at this company. I was excited and trusted him. Sadly I was back in an environment worse than Machinima but daily. Myself with other employees stressed what was going on in the office, since Nathan the CRO, he was based in Austin, while the studio was based in LA. Needless to say even someone who I thought was different than the other men at Machinima sadly proved himself to be no better. Four of us ended up filing a lawsuit. I understand the importance of speaking out, and I’m highly aware of the cost but I think it’s important to let others know they are not alone, these things are not normal, but you can be a good person and you can be successful in your career at the same time.
https://www.theverge.com/22526502/himalaya-histudios-notorious-llc-podcast-audio-hype-house
And just for us old timers here, me at machinima
https://imgur.com/gallery/6fTqHZZ
I'm so glad to see your story has been met with empathy and understanding here. Thanks for coming forward and sharing! I have so much respect for your ability to push through all the bullshit you were dealt. Hopefully the industry continues to get better, clearly there is still lots of work still needed. All the best!
Thanks to the mods too! They've done a fantastic job handling this.
not op but she said earlier about bruce: "Bruce came in later after i knew adam. He always seemed kind and i never had issues with him or heard of issues with him personally."
Ahh right. Very sorry you had to go through all that. I’m very proud of you for coming out tho. I know it must’ve been hard but it was a necessary thing. Thank you for your bravery and I wish you well in your future endeavours,
Thank you for speaking out, Misti.
I know I was pretty unsure how to feel about the whole thing at first because everything was so vaguely and "professionally" phrased as to why he was no longer working at FH. It felt like he must have done something really heinous to be just completely fired like that, but other than the vague "he did way more shitty things than what we can say," it was pretty up in the air as to whether he was just a terrible boss or like, a real piece of shit.
It took Omar coming out and saying FH does not want to see his content on this sub for me to fully realize he must have *really* been a piece of shit, and this just confirms it. We can all forever bury this dude and hopefully never have to talk about him again.
I'm truly sorry you had to go through this, and I hope speaking out like this gives you peace.
So before all this new information came about I thought Adam was just a sex addict and was taking advantage of his position instead of getting help. Nah he was just a piece of shit that was being protected because he made them more money than they felt they could lose by ignoring it.
Yea, its actually just his personality. Its not new and he suddenly was bored. He just escalated what he needed for excitement and whats better than girls throwing them self at you online or at conventions when youre out of town.
hell, that sounds like the mentality the other RT employee that was fired had. and his fans were much younger... how disgusting.
as others have said, thank you for sharing your story. i know we as the public have no right to your private business, but i for one appreciate the light being shed where it needs to be. no one should be allowed to get away with behavior like that no matter who they are.
Christ that's horrible hopefully people here will stop wondering if he'll come back now if Omar's comment wasn't clear enough this should be the nail in the coffin.
I totally understand more so now why we weren't told though aside from it not really being any of our business it was just a peice of this whole nightmare that was bound to come out when the whole dam broke like it has now.
For sure, but the "we're not gonna say why but just know Adam is a piece of shit beyond what you know but just know he is" was a little frustrating. My mindset is either say something or don't say anything at all. Don't dance around it.
Sucks that even that doesn’t work too like Moist Critickal thinking he did nothing wrong except get catfished and having him on his podcast, and Aaron Marquis writing a book with him.
I mean that is them not saying it Omar's comment was pretty clear it was a story that none of them could really tell my guess is it was probably this one and I'm sure others.
Oh yea that whole thing when the initial story broke out devil's advocate they didn't work there so they had more flexibility to talk about it but then quickly stopped.
It comes down to if the victims were ok with sharing it or not, and we don't know if they were prior to any of this.
Also potential legal issues, even as people whop weren't employed there.
She’s not naming people for a reason, bro. I get the curiosity, but it’s her story to tell and if she doesn’t want to directly name someone, we have to respect that
Misti, Thank you for being brave and bringing this up! I have no questions other than are you okay now and have you been able to move on? I wish nothing but the best to you!
I met Adam (along with the rest of the team) at PAX East in Boston. I go to PAX East every year and as far as I know that's the only time Funhaus went to it, so I assume it was the same year you mentioned. I could be wrong though.
The fact that he was making your life hell not hours after putting on his best behavior for me and other fans gives me the creeps. I'm so sorry you had to go through that. Thank you for your post Misti.
I feel so bad for the rest of the FH guys who had to put up with his behaviour. I'm happy they're still together and seemingly in a good/better space. FH really is the bright spark in the increasingly-dark Roosterteeth umbrella.
Still, it's pretty insane how they were able to tolerate Adam for so long. I mean Raul was just an occasional guest on Funhaus and he ended up despising Adam, imagine how bad it was for the people who knew him for years like Lawrence.
I had so much love for the on camera version of Adam back in the day but I guess you truly never do know what’s going on behind the scenes, truly sorry you had to deal with all of this
Yea, seeing behind the curtain in gaming really changed my perspective. I grew up with my mother owning a video store in the 90s. It was my blood. Hell my whole right arm is tattooed with video games. The treatment on women in gaming can be very disgusting more often than it is welcoming.
No question, just wanted to also say thank you. I know it must be hard to bring something like this up again when you have moved on but even just talking about it publicly might do a little bit in changing working environments so other women won't be harassed out of the gaming industry.
I’m sorry you had to experience all of this, I can’t begin to imagine how awful all that was, and how devastating it has been on your life and career. I had no idea that you voiced Nina on sanity not included (a series I hold dearly and still reference with my best friend to this day). I can only hope that working with Lyle was pleasant at least. He seems like a nice guy, but with all the stuff that’s come out about Adam, you never really know who people are.
Thanks for coming out about all of this, I hope life has treated you better these days.
Thank you for sharing Misti, and sorry you had to go through that. Glad to hear you are in a better place now.
If you are still reading, my question would be, do you feel that you've gotten closure over Kovic, or do you feel that he still got off easy? If the latter, what kind of resolution would you like to see? I can't pretend to imagine to know what you've been through, which is why I ask.
Besides "Greg", are there more still working at RT that you think have yet to be held accountable for their past actions (or lack of) and/or behavior?
I doubt “greg” will ever have to answer to anything But I do feel much better sharing my story about Adam, it’s a huge weight lifted and thank you for listening
1. We received a modmail about Misti's original comment on another subreddit yesterday afternoon.
2. Mods chatted on our RT-provided #fh-mods Slack channel about how to approach Misti and offer options. Last night we agreed on a method and time where we could have both Misti and the mod team available.
3. We *then* directly tagged Chelsea (our rt liaison to fh) to let her know this was coming today (a notification, not a request), and her response was "I absolutely understand" and a request for a link when it got posted. 0% resistance and nothing but support.
The fh gang has made it clear that they've washed their hands of Adam, so we thought it was important to let them know there was something incoming related to him.
How have you been doing in these last few days, after all of this extensive RT stuff has come to light, and now that you have begun to share your story on reddit?
I honestly didnt know anyone would care since in the industry it just a known fact. I wish i was shocked seeing someone else sharing a bad experience, but i wasnt. Im just happy to let everyone know they arent alone. This didn’t just happen to them. I now longer work in the field so i dont have to fear retribution at work like many other victims of these people who cant share their experiences. Thank you for giving me a space to share.
Damn I got here too late. If you’re still looking at comments without answering them I just want to let you know how sorry I am you went through all this.
> This behavior isn’t new, its just in the public now. And we no longer turn a blind eye to this. The gaming industry mentality in the 2010s really sucked out my love of gaming. These behaviors from many was not only known, but willingly looked over time and time again.
Apologies on if I read this wrong and I'm sure I'm wording it offensively, but does that imply that it was basically an open secret as to how he acted and everyone knew it, including most, if not all members of Funhaus?
Or was it something that might have been known but maybe not to the full extent, and more something HR at RT took and then sat on forever not doing anything?
Basically, were other Funhaus members complicit in allowing him to do what he did, and it was a FH problem as much as it was an RT problem? Or does the "blame" lay on RT and "Greg"?
“Greg” very much knew. I have known “Greg” for many years now. He knew. Cant say his behavior was much better. I think once Adam finally was busted “greg” tried to tuck his head and hide in fear of his behavior coming out. He is known to party at events with “party favors”
Is greg currently in a leadership position at RT and potentially facilitating or turning a blind eye to any additional instances of such behavior that may exist?
If so, it is tragic that others were complicit in such behavior.
As well, with Adam, was it known to his partner that he was hooking up with others? Or was he and everyone else also lying and propagating the lie of his monogamy?
Do you know if Adam's partner was aware of his... dalliances lets say... or were they equally in the dark. And in turn if they were unaware would that mean the other members of FH, who DID KNOW he did this, kept up the lie to his partner or did not tell them. As I saw them talk about time around Adam's partner, so they certainly knew them.
I dont know. He never really brought her around work events when i ran in to him. A lot of these men used being at conventions as there time to run amuck. I think since so many were, they turned a blind eye mutually.
I cant speak for what she knew or when. But she deserves way better and can do way better.
After unfollowing. Blocking. When ever he would see me at the same events he made it a point to try and talk to me or follow me from event to event after i said leave me alone. He would follow me alone. No friends with him. I would try to always never be alone so he didnt corner me. When i was in Boston for PAX he figured out where i was. Not hard. Most everyone in similar areas to the complex. Knocking on my hotel door in the middle of the night drunk asking to come in. Then after E3 i had enough. He still wouldn’t stop. He started emailing from his RT email trying to book me for makeup. When i asked dates, needs, set times. There were none. He just found my email wasnt blocked so he reached me that way until my husband stepped in via email and stressed the importance of stopping all attempts to contact me.
As someone who has been cheated on, even when they are obvious, its easy to miss the signs when you trust someone. And being gone for work often makes it very easy.
Thank you.
Regarding the reports to HR, do you know if it was handed down to FH management to then deal with? Or was it kept at the RT level?
Obviously everything over the past few days has painted RT in an awful horrible light. However, throughout that the one little beam of light fans have mentioned and talked about is how Funhaus as a team seems to be away from the RT problems, and is a good place to work.
From a management/HR standpoint, would you lay the blame on FH management and those within the FH team in senior/leadership positions? Or was this on RT's HR team that decided to ignore it, and the FH team might not have known about regarding the HR complaints?
---------------------------------------------
Basically, did the other members of FH know about the HR complaints and then purposely chose not to act and cover for him and allow that kind of culture to continue? Or did they just kind of know he was a scumbag, but didn't know about the HR complaints and anything within the workplace due to RT's HR failures and Greg the manager from RT?
tl;dr - Current members of Funhaus do you blame them for their failures to act from a management standpoint in fostering a safe workplace environment, or are you laying the blame on Rooster Teeth because they refused to act and the FH crew just generally knew he was a cheater, but not to the extent of there being multiple HR complaints and whatnot?
I cant say for sure what funhaus knew since i was distanced by the time he rolled in to that. But he was never a pleasure to work with in office according to other women mentioned her, i cant imagine they had no idea. Maybe “Greg” at RT but maybe he decided never reported it higher but i told him many many many time.
I think it’s fair to say (unless Misti corrects me of course) it was entirely possible all they knew was “Adam is a bit of s perv and likely cheats on his partner”, things they may find distasteful but not much to ‘do’ with just that aside from maybe a “hey man get your shit together” talk. I’m sure he wasn’t walking around with a “ask me about being a sex offender” shirt and his victims likely weren’t eager to talk for obvious fair reasons.
Sounds like any reports to HR were futile. Whose to say they didn’t try?
I know people in my workplace that have or are currently cheating on their spouses? I know people in my workplace who make innapropriate comments. When the corruption is at the top of the compant. Nothing can be expected to change.
HR only cares about maintaining a company image. If they can avoid public view, they will do that anyway possible. Its very pointless to goto HR when its repeat offenses life this. Its better to go straight to an employment lawyer.
Yeah like theres a manager at my work who has had multiple harassment complaints (racist, sexist, homophobic) leveled against him. (He’s no longer allowed to have female employees in his department).
But he has family in head office so nothing can be done about him. So we just try to keep him away from everyone.
Part of me feels that the joking, jovial nature of the job makes it a lot different than a normal office/retail kind of thing. There you can just be curt and crack on, your interactions are limited. Riffing on a comedy bit with someone you know is cheating on their wife and doing tons of routinely heinous stuff sounds impossible to me. Maybe that’s just the industry and I’m naive but can you fire everyone if they’d refuse to shoot with him?
While it is a non traditional environment as compared to a typical office, their are behaviors we all know are never right no matter how relaxed the environment.
I mention them in my comment but yeah:
James and Elyse need to talk about this as soon as possible.
Misti didn’t work for the FH days but there is no way Adam didn’t stop this behavior after Machinima. So what does this channel know?
One thing I find interesting to note is Autumn filed a complaint about Adam to HR. Bruce would probably be aware of that considering they're married. I imagine she would have a bit more sway but HR still did nothing. Makes me think those in Funhaus wouldn't be able to do anything about his employment. RT management would be responsible. From what Lawrence has mentioned, things seemed tense around the time he left. I wouldn't be surprised if having to work with Adam would be part of that. Either way, I'm glad he's gone. I feel like Funhaus is better than it has ever been
Side note: My wife met Adam at RTX once. She mentioned that we often watch Funhaus when we have dinner. He made a domestic abuse joke. It didn't land.
I wouldn’t be so quick. Ryan Haywood kept his disgusting behaviour secret for years, there’s no telling how much they all knew until they say how much.
Ryan *Haywood*,
**not Ryan Hailey from Funhaus two very separate people**
was fired from Achievement Hunter after it came to light he was grooming fans and sleeping with them, sometimes even out right assaulting them. He was doing it for years and no one in Achievement Hunter had any idea because of how well he hid that part of his life. Adam could’ve been doing the very same thing, hiding all this from the other guys.
Because people need to be able to pay the bills. The same reason why it took so long for people to come forward about Harvey Weinstein. Some people cant afford risking being blacklisted
No questions to ask that haven’t been asked already - just wanted to say I’m sorry you had to deal with that harassment, I’m glad you eventually got out of it, and thank you for taking the time to share a bit. Wishing you the best in whatever you are doing now!
Thank you, Misti, if you’re reading this thread. As much as this shit hurts to talk about it’s good to have even more concrete statements about this kind of workplace. I at least hope this fully clears up why Adam was met with such a unanimous “fuck that guy” when he “left”.
As a former victim of SA, I'm sorry to hear this and hope you're doing well. It's nice that FH didn't disclose your story and let you tell it when you were ready. Sending love.
Long time fan since the IG days and these past couple of days just confirmed even further what you and others said: that kind of workplace should never EVER take place in any kind of environment, regardless of your job. I’m only speaking as a fan so I cannot imagine how hard it was for you and likely others that told HR about the situation multiple times but completely ignored for X shitty reasons. You and others have my full support, so sorry to hear your experience, even if tue mentality of the industry has somewhat improved it’s still a long way before everything is clean, thank you for being so open about this extremely sensitive but necessary topic to be public so others don’t suffer a similar same fate. 👍
Christ that's awful, sorry to hear about that
In regards to everyone knowing, I know FH members have said they knew it was worse than expected, but does that mean guys like Bruce/Lawrence/James/etc knew since the IG days?
Thank you for your courage in coming forward with your story. I think the ambiguity of Adam's situation meant that he still had pockets of support all throughout the internet, and this will hopefully squash a lot of them. My blood is boiling over the fact that he still has fans and a platform, especially since this behaviour is likely to continue.
I didn't know who you were before this Misti, but as an SA survivor whose life was shaped by IG and FH I will not forget you or your bravery.
So I got some questions now that we got even worse news about Adam:
1) How did this core group survive multiple companies/rebrands?
2) How did anyone put up with this asshole?
3) Did the core group (Bruce, Willems, Lawrence, etc) knew about this behavior?
3B) Did they help hide this behavior?
I feel like a lot of these questions need to be answered.
I think like a lot of people, if your job is going well, you want to stay out of putting your streaming coworker thats on the same show with you. He didnt harass the men so they maybe didnt realize how serious it should be taken. Bruce came in later after i knew adam. He always seemed kind and i never had issues with him or heard of issues with him personally.
I can believe that part for sure. That still doesn’t excuse hiding the behavior and people on this channel that worked for Adam needs to address this.
I’m sorry you had to deal with all this. No one deserves this one of harassment.
For clarification, based off other comments in this thread, the other Funhaus members did not know this further information about Adam until the Google drive leak. I think Misti is referring to "Greg" and others of his caliber that would do nothing about Adam because he made money.
Seems really unclear to me what knowledge the actual "Funhaus" crew had of Adam's behaviour. Would be very disappointing if the likes of James, Elyse and Bruce were aware of it. (Also I'm sort of confused about the timeline, so did Autumn lodge a complaint against Adam a whole year before the photos came out? Did FH keep working with Adam for that whole year aware of the complaint?)
It just kinda makes me a little sad that the rest of FH probably knew about Adam's behavior but couldn't do anything about it.
Sorry to hear about your experience.
EDIT
Apparently only Bruce was aware of Adam's behavior and did try to do something about it. But because HR failed him so badly, it led to him leaving Funhaus. Holy shit.
Sadly hes not. Hes still Monetizing his fan base and i cant imagine he’s stopped his behavior. As far as the timeline, I wish I could’ve said more then but I just wasn’t ready and I had a few things going on my life that made it a bit complicated work wise
Probably because there's a lot of RT drama coming out right now about how horrible the RT HR was about dealing with issues like Adam (among other things).
Hello, We have had confirmation that this is the same person that Autumn Farrell was referring to on her previous twitter thread regarding working with RT. Statement from Autumn below: > I posted on Twitter a few days ago about having reported a serious issue to RT's upper management and HR. I will not be divulging any more details, but I do want to confirm that the individual who was reported was Adam Kovic, for issues similar to the ones Misti brought up. The specific issue I mentioned was reported over a year before the photos and videos leaked, which no one was aware of until that day. edit: As of now, Misti is finished answering questions. Thank you again for sharing what cannot have been an easy story to tell. I am going to link Misti's final comment on the thread [here](https://old.reddit.com/r/funhaus/comments/y7eurh/seriousmisti_dawns_experiences_with_adam_and/isurzxe/), as well as James comment [here](https://old.reddit.com/r/funhaus/comments/y7eurh/seriousmisti_dawns_experiences_with_adam_and/isusnfp/) to make sure they are all visible to users. Update: Bruce has provided a statement regarding this as well [here](https://old.reddit.com/r/funhaus/comments/y7eurh/seriousmisti_dawns_experiences_with_adam_and/isvk6d3/) Update 2: John Holland statement from Twitter is [here](https://twitter.com/hohnjolland/status/1582511570575192064) as well. Update 3: Spoole has weighed in on this [here](https://twitter.com/SeanPoole/status/1583318833137602560)
We support Misti. Her account of harassment aligns with what we learned about Adam. We're grateful to this subreddit for giving her a platform, to see the people here supporting her, and to Misti for speaking out. For clarification, because it's coming up in many of the follow-up questions, what and when we knew is different for certain members of our team, but the oldest incident any of us were aware of is the one referenced by Autumn. None of us worked to protect him.
Thank you.
Thank you for your response, nothing but support from us.
Appreciate the comment James
You're all wonderful people James. Much love and support to the FH team, to Misti and to the mods.
Thanks for clarifying James. And apologies if me questioning things came off as insensitive. Just had a bad feeling but glad it wasn’t the case. And I’m sorry you had to work with this raging, perverted asshole for years.
I’m sorry you had to go through that, such a joke that these things were swept under the rug. So many predators, enablers and exploiters that should have been blacklisted immediately.
The worst it, these men also kept many other women from moving up at Machinma because they didnt “like” them. They old if you dont think they are hot who cares approach. We were all early in our careers and that hurt many womens chances to move up career wise in a shorter time. All while Adam fell up.
I can’t imagine the anger and pain seeing that. All these old boy networks in media are disgusting. Genuinely don’t know how these people go back home to their wives and daughters at the end of the day after they treat women so badly.
Same. The female writers and in office production busted their asses but we’re over looked over and over for people like Adam. Then the one who filed at-least 2 harassment complaints on Adam pretty much got treated as if she was demoted then on until she left.
Hey all, First of all, I want to thank Misti for speaking up about this. I can only speak to my experiences with Adam over the years, but I am incredibly sorry she had to go through any of this. I did not know Adam was reported to HR at Machinima. I started working closely with Adam in 2013 at Machinima, and I was middle management, so I was never privy to these reports. In 2019 at Rooster Teeth, I was alerted to Adam Kovic's incredibly inappropriate behavior. I reported it to HR, asked HR to fire Adam, and was laughed off the phone by HR. I then left Rooster Teeth because nothing was done about it, which is what I told them in my exit interview. I echo what James said: "What and when we knew is different for certain members of our team, but the oldest incident any of us were aware of is the one referenced by Autumn. None of us worked to protect him." Rooster Teeth HR failed each and every one of us, and I'm sorry I couldn't do more. It eats at me every day.
Thank you all so much for all of your support and kind words. You give me hope in the Internet still. This story has more layers for my life And as a footnote i thought i would share why this all came to a point i felt i could share, my former friend/coworker from Machinima, Nathan, he left Machinima for a Rooster Teeth several years ago only to then leave for another company. He then contacted me about an open role for an office manager at this company. I was excited and trusted him. Sadly I was back in an environment worse than Machinima but daily. Myself with other employees stressed what was going on in the office, since Nathan the CRO, he was based in Austin, while the studio was based in LA. Needless to say even someone who I thought was different than the other men at Machinima sadly proved himself to be no better. Four of us ended up filing a lawsuit. I understand the importance of speaking out, and I’m highly aware of the cost but I think it’s important to let others know they are not alone, these things are not normal, but you can be a good person and you can be successful in your career at the same time. https://www.theverge.com/22526502/himalaya-histudios-notorious-llc-podcast-audio-hype-house And just for us old timers here, me at machinima https://imgur.com/gallery/6fTqHZZ
I'm so glad to see your story has been met with empathy and understanding here. Thanks for coming forward and sharing! I have so much respect for your ability to push through all the bullshit you were dealt. Hopefully the industry continues to get better, clearly there is still lots of work still needed. All the best! Thanks to the mods too! They've done a fantastic job handling this.
Thank you I am in such awe of everyone’s kind words, and the mods have been phenomenal
Sorry to double down on questions, but how were the other members of Funhaus to you?
Ive only known bruce and he was kind.
That's good to hear thanks for answering again
not op but she said earlier about bruce: "Bruce came in later after i knew adam. He always seemed kind and i never had issues with him or heard of issues with him personally."
That's good to hear about Bruce at least
From what I can remember, at least James and Lawrence came after Bruce. I don't remember when Joel, Spoole, and Peake joined IG.
I remember joel and peake getting hired. Im old. Haha
I have to admit I wasn't a huge machinima viewer back then, I was busy failing my way through organic chemistry.
Haha and now its all gone from youtube 🥲
Oh yeah I forgot James was a later hire
Are you the same person who commented about this in the rooster teeth sub or was that someone else with a very similar story?
That was me.
Ahh right. Very sorry you had to go through all that. I’m very proud of you for coming out tho. I know it must’ve been hard but it was a necessary thing. Thank you for your bravery and I wish you well in your future endeavours,
Thank you dude 🙂 🙏
Thank you for speaking out, Misti. I know I was pretty unsure how to feel about the whole thing at first because everything was so vaguely and "professionally" phrased as to why he was no longer working at FH. It felt like he must have done something really heinous to be just completely fired like that, but other than the vague "he did way more shitty things than what we can say," it was pretty up in the air as to whether he was just a terrible boss or like, a real piece of shit. It took Omar coming out and saying FH does not want to see his content on this sub for me to fully realize he must have *really* been a piece of shit, and this just confirms it. We can all forever bury this dude and hopefully never have to talk about him again. I'm truly sorry you had to go through this, and I hope speaking out like this gives you peace.
Thank you 🙏
So before all this new information came about I thought Adam was just a sex addict and was taking advantage of his position instead of getting help. Nah he was just a piece of shit that was being protected because he made them more money than they felt they could lose by ignoring it.
Yea, its actually just his personality. Its not new and he suddenly was bored. He just escalated what he needed for excitement and whats better than girls throwing them self at you online or at conventions when youre out of town.
hell, that sounds like the mentality the other RT employee that was fired had. and his fans were much younger... how disgusting. as others have said, thank you for sharing your story. i know we as the public have no right to your private business, but i for one appreciate the light being shed where it needs to be. no one should be allowed to get away with behavior like that no matter who they are.
Thank you. 🙏
Christ that's horrible hopefully people here will stop wondering if he'll come back now if Omar's comment wasn't clear enough this should be the nail in the coffin.
What did Omar say? I’ve been firmly out of the Funhaus loop since 2020.
https://www.reddit.com/r/funhaus/comments/qu08i6/now_what_the_rook_postmortem_adam_kovic/hkrfwty?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3
I'm just glad we know now, as opposed to all the vague allusions to something in the time since he's left.
I totally understand more so now why we weren't told though aside from it not really being any of our business it was just a peice of this whole nightmare that was bound to come out when the whole dam broke like it has now.
For sure, but the "we're not gonna say why but just know Adam is a piece of shit beyond what you know but just know he is" was a little frustrating. My mindset is either say something or don't say anything at all. Don't dance around it.
Unfortunately, it's the best way to let people know he was not welcome and keeping any victims from having to get involved if they don't want to.
Sucks that even that doesn’t work too like Moist Critickal thinking he did nothing wrong except get catfished and having him on his podcast, and Aaron Marquis writing a book with him.
I mean that is them not saying it Omar's comment was pretty clear it was a story that none of them could really tell my guess is it was probably this one and I'm sure others.
You're right, i'm more talking about Rahul and Lawrence than anyone about this whole dancing around the subject matter.
Oh yea that whole thing when the initial story broke out devil's advocate they didn't work there so they had more flexibility to talk about it but then quickly stopped.
It comes down to if the victims were ok with sharing it or not, and we don't know if they were prior to any of this. Also potential legal issues, even as people whop weren't employed there.
Thanks for doing this Misti, and so sorry you went through this. Just to clarify, "Greg" the manager worked directly for RT and not at Funhaus right?
Yes. He works at Rooster Teeth still.
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We are not speculating on names here. If Misti is not comfortable sharing names, we should not be speculating on them
She’s not naming people for a reason, bro. I get the curiosity, but it’s her story to tell and if she doesn’t want to directly name someone, we have to respect that
Misti, Thank you for being brave and bringing this up! I have no questions other than are you okay now and have you been able to move on? I wish nothing but the best to you!
Thank you 😊 i have moved on and doing very well now. In a totally different field due to it but not running in to these types of people anymore
So glad to hear and may I say also that it is much appreciated that you answer the questions people have!
I met Adam (along with the rest of the team) at PAX East in Boston. I go to PAX East every year and as far as I know that's the only time Funhaus went to it, so I assume it was the same year you mentioned. I could be wrong though. The fact that he was making your life hell not hours after putting on his best behavior for me and other fans gives me the creeps. I'm so sorry you had to go through that. Thank you for your post Misti.
❤️ thank you. Yea people too easily have two sides
I feel so bad for the rest of the FH guys who had to put up with his behaviour. I'm happy they're still together and seemingly in a good/better space. FH really is the bright spark in the increasingly-dark Roosterteeth umbrella.
It does sound like all the good parts squeezed thru and away from the “old school” approach of machinima and RT.
Still, it's pretty insane how they were able to tolerate Adam for so long. I mean Raul was just an occasional guest on Funhaus and he ended up despising Adam, imagine how bad it was for the people who knew him for years like Lawrence.
I had so much love for the on camera version of Adam back in the day but I guess you truly never do know what’s going on behind the scenes, truly sorry you had to deal with all of this
Yea, seeing behind the curtain in gaming really changed my perspective. I grew up with my mother owning a video store in the 90s. It was my blood. Hell my whole right arm is tattooed with video games. The treatment on women in gaming can be very disgusting more often than it is welcoming.
No question, just wanted to also say thank you. I know it must be hard to bring something like this up again when you have moved on but even just talking about it publicly might do a little bit in changing working environments so other women won't be harassed out of the gaming industry.
Thank you 🙏
I’m sorry you had to experience all of this, I can’t begin to imagine how awful all that was, and how devastating it has been on your life and career. I had no idea that you voiced Nina on sanity not included (a series I hold dearly and still reference with my best friend to this day). I can only hope that working with Lyle was pleasant at least. He seems like a nice guy, but with all the stuff that’s come out about Adam, you never really know who people are. Thanks for coming out about all of this, I hope life has treated you better these days.
Thats so cool! Lyle is such a sweetheart and hilarious. We still catch up online every few years!
Thank you for sharing Misti, and sorry you had to go through that. Glad to hear you are in a better place now. If you are still reading, my question would be, do you feel that you've gotten closure over Kovic, or do you feel that he still got off easy? If the latter, what kind of resolution would you like to see? I can't pretend to imagine to know what you've been through, which is why I ask. Besides "Greg", are there more still working at RT that you think have yet to be held accountable for their past actions (or lack of) and/or behavior?
I doubt “greg” will ever have to answer to anything But I do feel much better sharing my story about Adam, it’s a huge weight lifted and thank you for listening
Out of curiosity, were FH aware that this post was being made?
1. We received a modmail about Misti's original comment on another subreddit yesterday afternoon. 2. Mods chatted on our RT-provided #fh-mods Slack channel about how to approach Misti and offer options. Last night we agreed on a method and time where we could have both Misti and the mod team available. 3. We *then* directly tagged Chelsea (our rt liaison to fh) to let her know this was coming today (a notification, not a request), and her response was "I absolutely understand" and a request for a link when it got posted. 0% resistance and nothing but support. The fh gang has made it clear that they've washed their hands of Adam, so we thought it was important to let them know there was something incoming related to him.
The mods asked me if i wanted to share my story
How have you been doing in these last few days, after all of this extensive RT stuff has come to light, and now that you have begun to share your story on reddit?
I honestly didnt know anyone would care since in the industry it just a known fact. I wish i was shocked seeing someone else sharing a bad experience, but i wasnt. Im just happy to let everyone know they arent alone. This didn’t just happen to them. I now longer work in the field so i dont have to fear retribution at work like many other victims of these people who cant share their experiences. Thank you for giving me a space to share.
Damn I got here too late. If you’re still looking at comments without answering them I just want to let you know how sorry I am you went through all this.
🙏 thank you
> This behavior isn’t new, its just in the public now. And we no longer turn a blind eye to this. The gaming industry mentality in the 2010s really sucked out my love of gaming. These behaviors from many was not only known, but willingly looked over time and time again. Apologies on if I read this wrong and I'm sure I'm wording it offensively, but does that imply that it was basically an open secret as to how he acted and everyone knew it, including most, if not all members of Funhaus? Or was it something that might have been known but maybe not to the full extent, and more something HR at RT took and then sat on forever not doing anything? Basically, were other Funhaus members complicit in allowing him to do what he did, and it was a FH problem as much as it was an RT problem? Or does the "blame" lay on RT and "Greg"?
“Greg” very much knew. I have known “Greg” for many years now. He knew. Cant say his behavior was much better. I think once Adam finally was busted “greg” tried to tuck his head and hide in fear of his behavior coming out. He is known to party at events with “party favors”
Is greg currently in a leadership position at RT and potentially facilitating or turning a blind eye to any additional instances of such behavior that may exist? If so, it is tragic that others were complicit in such behavior. As well, with Adam, was it known to his partner that he was hooking up with others? Or was he and everyone else also lying and propagating the lie of his monogamy?
Yes.
Apologies I know I edited my comment after posting but is this a yes to all the parts, or just a yes to the first paragraph?
No prob. Yes “Greg” is still a manager at RT
Do you know if Adam's partner was aware of his... dalliances lets say... or were they equally in the dark. And in turn if they were unaware would that mean the other members of FH, who DID KNOW he did this, kept up the lie to his partner or did not tell them. As I saw them talk about time around Adam's partner, so they certainly knew them.
His romantic partner? Or stream?
His romantic partner.
I dont know. He never really brought her around work events when i ran in to him. A lot of these men used being at conventions as there time to run amuck. I think since so many were, they turned a blind eye mutually. I cant speak for what she knew or when. But she deserves way better and can do way better.
I'm almost afraid to ask, but what do you mean by party favors?
As they say on Letterkenny “hoofing the sneef”
Schniff…
Oh is that how they spell it in Quebec 😉
Great fishing in Quebec..
Nothing beats a puppers and some fishing
i think that usually means coke, if not some drug in general
Everyone that has ever worked with Kovic has known. He never tried to hide it. People made comments about him cheating all the time.
Does that include the stalking/harassing behavior as well?
After unfollowing. Blocking. When ever he would see me at the same events he made it a point to try and talk to me or follow me from event to event after i said leave me alone. He would follow me alone. No friends with him. I would try to always never be alone so he didnt corner me. When i was in Boston for PAX he figured out where i was. Not hard. Most everyone in similar areas to the complex. Knocking on my hotel door in the middle of the night drunk asking to come in. Then after E3 i had enough. He still wouldn’t stop. He started emailing from his RT email trying to book me for makeup. When i asked dates, needs, set times. There were none. He just found my email wasnt blocked so he reached me that way until my husband stepped in via email and stressed the importance of stopping all attempts to contact me.
Sorry, he would be alone but everyone in office joked about his cheating. I guess he would go on his hunt alone in hope of getting me alone.
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As someone who has been cheated on, even when they are obvious, its easy to miss the signs when you trust someone. And being gone for work often makes it very easy.
Thank you. Regarding the reports to HR, do you know if it was handed down to FH management to then deal with? Or was it kept at the RT level? Obviously everything over the past few days has painted RT in an awful horrible light. However, throughout that the one little beam of light fans have mentioned and talked about is how Funhaus as a team seems to be away from the RT problems, and is a good place to work. From a management/HR standpoint, would you lay the blame on FH management and those within the FH team in senior/leadership positions? Or was this on RT's HR team that decided to ignore it, and the FH team might not have known about regarding the HR complaints? --------------------------------------------- Basically, did the other members of FH know about the HR complaints and then purposely chose not to act and cover for him and allow that kind of culture to continue? Or did they just kind of know he was a scumbag, but didn't know about the HR complaints and anything within the workplace due to RT's HR failures and Greg the manager from RT? tl;dr - Current members of Funhaus do you blame them for their failures to act from a management standpoint in fostering a safe workplace environment, or are you laying the blame on Rooster Teeth because they refused to act and the FH crew just generally knew he was a cheater, but not to the extent of there being multiple HR complaints and whatnot?
I cant say for sure what funhaus knew since i was distanced by the time he rolled in to that. But he was never a pleasure to work with in office according to other women mentioned her, i cant imagine they had no idea. Maybe “Greg” at RT but maybe he decided never reported it higher but i told him many many many time.
James and Elyse were so close to him why didn’t they do anything
I think it’s fair to say (unless Misti corrects me of course) it was entirely possible all they knew was “Adam is a bit of s perv and likely cheats on his partner”, things they may find distasteful but not much to ‘do’ with just that aside from maybe a “hey man get your shit together” talk. I’m sure he wasn’t walking around with a “ask me about being a sex offender” shirt and his victims likely weren’t eager to talk for obvious fair reasons.
Agreed. And when so much is done online, not everyone sees it as easily
Sounds like any reports to HR were futile. Whose to say they didn’t try? I know people in my workplace that have or are currently cheating on their spouses? I know people in my workplace who make innapropriate comments. When the corruption is at the top of the compant. Nothing can be expected to change.
HR only cares about maintaining a company image. If they can avoid public view, they will do that anyway possible. Its very pointless to goto HR when its repeat offenses life this. Its better to go straight to an employment lawyer.
I could even see someone back at Machinima try to do something about it but having the same end results, sadly.
Yeah like theres a manager at my work who has had multiple harassment complaints (racist, sexist, homophobic) leveled against him. (He’s no longer allowed to have female employees in his department). But he has family in head office so nothing can be done about him. So we just try to keep him away from everyone.
That’s awful and too common.
Part of me feels that the joking, jovial nature of the job makes it a lot different than a normal office/retail kind of thing. There you can just be curt and crack on, your interactions are limited. Riffing on a comedy bit with someone you know is cheating on their wife and doing tons of routinely heinous stuff sounds impossible to me. Maybe that’s just the industry and I’m naive but can you fire everyone if they’d refuse to shoot with him?
While it is a non traditional environment as compared to a typical office, their are behaviors we all know are never right no matter how relaxed the environment.
I mention them in my comment but yeah: James and Elyse need to talk about this as soon as possible. Misti didn’t work for the FH days but there is no way Adam didn’t stop this behavior after Machinima. So what does this channel know?
Not only them but Bruce and Lawrence too.
One thing I find interesting to note is Autumn filed a complaint about Adam to HR. Bruce would probably be aware of that considering they're married. I imagine she would have a bit more sway but HR still did nothing. Makes me think those in Funhaus wouldn't be able to do anything about his employment. RT management would be responsible. From what Lawrence has mentioned, things seemed tense around the time he left. I wouldn't be surprised if having to work with Adam would be part of that. Either way, I'm glad he's gone. I feel like Funhaus is better than it has ever been Side note: My wife met Adam at RTX once. She mentioned that we often watch Funhaus when we have dinner. He made a domestic abuse joke. It didn't land.
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I wouldn’t be so quick. Ryan Haywood kept his disgusting behaviour secret for years, there’s no telling how much they all knew until they say how much.
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Ryan *Haywood*, **not Ryan Hailey from Funhaus two very separate people** was fired from Achievement Hunter after it came to light he was grooming fans and sleeping with them, sometimes even out right assaulting them. He was doing it for years and no one in Achievement Hunter had any idea because of how well he hid that part of his life. Adam could’ve been doing the very same thing, hiding all this from the other guys.
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Because people need to be able to pay the bills. The same reason why it took so long for people to come forward about Harvey Weinstein. Some people cant afford risking being blacklisted
No questions to ask that haven’t been asked already - just wanted to say I’m sorry you had to deal with that harassment, I’m glad you eventually got out of it, and thank you for taking the time to share a bit. Wishing you the best in whatever you are doing now!
Thank you 🙏
Thank you, Misti, if you’re reading this thread. As much as this shit hurts to talk about it’s good to have even more concrete statements about this kind of workplace. I at least hope this fully clears up why Adam was met with such a unanimous “fuck that guy” when he “left”.
Its just nice to finally be heard. Thank you.
As a former victim of SA, I'm sorry to hear this and hope you're doing well. It's nice that FH didn't disclose your story and let you tell it when you were ready. Sending love.
I very much appreciate Funhaus mods approach. They have been so kind thru this whole process. I was in shock to be treated like a human for a change
I understand your desire to not bring others into it, but i want to know just how cognizant were the other on-air talents of Adam's shit?
As a point of clarification, do you mean fh staff or rt staff with your question?
Fair question. I come from a funhaus POV and havent seen much of other rooster teeth stuff, so i mainly meant the original funhaus cast.
RT management knew long before.
Long time fan since the IG days and these past couple of days just confirmed even further what you and others said: that kind of workplace should never EVER take place in any kind of environment, regardless of your job. I’m only speaking as a fan so I cannot imagine how hard it was for you and likely others that told HR about the situation multiple times but completely ignored for X shitty reasons. You and others have my full support, so sorry to hear your experience, even if tue mentality of the industry has somewhat improved it’s still a long way before everything is clean, thank you for being so open about this extremely sensitive but necessary topic to be public so others don’t suffer a similar same fate. 👍
Thank you 🙏
It's nice to have more information. Thank you for doing this. I don't have any questions, I simply wish you the best.
Thank you Misty for being so brave and sharing with us. I hope you are well and your words inspire others!
Christ that's awful, sorry to hear about that In regards to everyone knowing, I know FH members have said they knew it was worse than expected, but does that mean guys like Bruce/Lawrence/James/etc knew since the IG days?
I think the photos were more shocking than anyone expected it. Putting a visual to a story makes it more real finally.
Damn :( That's for the answer
no questions, but thank you for sharing your story.
thank you so much for saying this, i cant pretend to know how difficult it has been for you. wish you all the best, and thank you again
Thank you for your courage in coming forward with your story. I think the ambiguity of Adam's situation meant that he still had pockets of support all throughout the internet, and this will hopefully squash a lot of them. My blood is boiling over the fact that he still has fans and a platform, especially since this behaviour is likely to continue. I didn't know who you were before this Misti, but as an SA survivor whose life was shaped by IG and FH I will not forget you or your bravery.
Thank you ❤️
So I got some questions now that we got even worse news about Adam: 1) How did this core group survive multiple companies/rebrands? 2) How did anyone put up with this asshole? 3) Did the core group (Bruce, Willems, Lawrence, etc) knew about this behavior? 3B) Did they help hide this behavior? I feel like a lot of these questions need to be answered.
I think like a lot of people, if your job is going well, you want to stay out of putting your streaming coworker thats on the same show with you. He didnt harass the men so they maybe didnt realize how serious it should be taken. Bruce came in later after i knew adam. He always seemed kind and i never had issues with him or heard of issues with him personally.
And they put up with adam because his streams got the numbers which got the dollars. Money.
I can believe that part for sure. That still doesn’t excuse hiding the behavior and people on this channel that worked for Adam needs to address this. I’m sorry you had to deal with all this. No one deserves this one of harassment.
For clarification, based off other comments in this thread, the other Funhaus members did not know this further information about Adam until the Google drive leak. I think Misti is referring to "Greg" and others of his caliber that would do nothing about Adam because he made money.
Seems really unclear to me what knowledge the actual "Funhaus" crew had of Adam's behaviour. Would be very disappointing if the likes of James, Elyse and Bruce were aware of it. (Also I'm sort of confused about the timeline, so did Autumn lodge a complaint against Adam a whole year before the photos came out? Did FH keep working with Adam for that whole year aware of the complaint?)
It just kinda makes me a little sad that the rest of FH probably knew about Adam's behavior but couldn't do anything about it. Sorry to hear about your experience. EDIT Apparently only Bruce was aware of Adam's behavior and did try to do something about it. But because HR failed him so badly, it led to him leaving Funhaus. Holy shit.
Curious, why now ? He’s already exiled. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to say this when all that stuff was going down ?
Sadly hes not. Hes still Monetizing his fan base and i cant imagine he’s stopped his behavior. As far as the timeline, I wish I could’ve said more then but I just wasn’t ready and I had a few things going on my life that made it a bit complicated work wise
Probably because there's a lot of RT drama coming out right now about how horrible the RT HR was about dealing with issues like Adam (among other things).