The media company led by MrBeast, the YouTube megastar whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, has been sued by a former employee, who alleges she was subjected to years of sexual harassment, gender bias and retaliation by Donaldson and other senior leadership. Donaldson’s company, Beast Industries, denied the allegations and called them “categorically false.”
MrBeast’s Beast Industries has over 500 employees. Donaldson is the most-followed creator on YouTube, currently with 479 million subscribers for his MrBeast channel alone.
Lorrayne Mavromatis is a former exec who worked for MrBeast from Aug. 22, 2022, until Nov. 6, 2025. In her complaint (available at this link), filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Mavromatis describes a workplace culture in which harassment of women employees was normalized and complaints were dismissed. She says she was terminated after raising concerns about the company’s hostile work environment to her employer and taking maternity leave.
Mavromatis was hired as Beast Industries’ head of Instagram, at an annual salary of $100,000. In June 2023, she was promoted to head of creative, and her annual salary was increased to $120,000. Shortly afterwards, Mavromatis was promoted again and her salary increased to $250,000, according to her lawsuit. Per the lawsuit, Mavromatis managed a team of approximately 20 employees and a monthly budget of roughly $500,000.
“Due to MrBeast’s willful violations of the [the Family and Medical Leave Act] and intentional violations of North Carolina state law, Plaintiff seeks lost wages, lost benefits, reinstatement, front pay in lieu of reinstatement, liquidated damages, compensatory damages, punitive damages, injunctive relief, pre- and post-judgment interest, and reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs,” Mavromatis’ complaint says.
Beast Industries said in a statement to Variety: “This clout-chasing complaint is built on deliberate misrepresentations and categorically false statements, and we have the receipts to prove it. There is extensive evidence — including Slack and WhatsApp messages, company documents, and witness testimony — that unequivocally refutes her claims. We will not submit to opportunistic lawyers looking to manufacture a payday from us.”
Mavromatis’ lawsuit claims that during her employment, she “experienced and observed other female employees be subjected to sexual harassment that was both condoned and/or perpetuated by their supervisors.”
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For example, according to her complaint, the company’s former CEO James Warren subjected Mavromatis “to sexual harassment (making her meet him in his home for one-on-one meetings while commenting on the way she looked in her clothes) and dismissed her complaint about a male client’s unwelcome advances toward her as nothing (telling her that she should be honored that the client was hitting on her).”
In addition, according to Mavromatis’ lawsuit, when she asked Warren why Donaldson would not meet with her regarding certain projects, Warren told her: “Jimmy gets really awkward around beautiful women. Let’s just say that when you’re around and he goes to the restroom, he’s not actually using the restroom.” Following Warren’s comment, Mavromatis “began to wear baggy clothes and baseball caps, so her looks would not potentially negatively impact her employment,” according to the suit.
About the alleged exchange with Warren regarding Donaldson “using the restroom,” a Beast Industries spokeswoman said: “This is an allegation fabricated for the sole purpose of sparking headlines. It’s also disgusting that the lawsuit is exploiting Jimmy’s eye condition and Crohn’s disease — two medical conditions he has been publicly open about — in their attempt to secure a multimillion-dollar payday.”
Regarding the reference to Donaldson’s “eye condition,” the YouTuber in a February 2026 post on X, “I’m borderline blind in my right eye, the reason they look off is because I have to squint my right eye to see better even with my contacts in. There is nothing I can do.” Donaldson was responding to a user who had posted a close-up of his eyes and said, “his eyes never smile.”
According to Mavromatis’ suit, when she complained about the sexual harassment and the hostile environment she and other women were experiencing to Beast Industries’ head of HR, she was told that her claims were “unsubstantiated,” and “she was promptly demoted and transferred to an obscure role known by MrBeast employees as the division where ‘careers go to die.’”
The company fired Mavromatis less than three weeks after she returned from pregnancy-related leave, telling her that she was “too high caliber” for the role “she was demoted into after formally complaining about sexual harassment and the hostile work environment at MrBeast,” according to the lawsuit.
According to Beast Industries, Mavromatis was aware of her Family and Medical Leave Act rights. On March 10, 2025, the company asked all employees to revisit and re-sign the employee handbook, which includes both FMLA and parental leave policies. She signed that handbook on March 27, 2025.
In late summer 2025, Beast Industries’ current CEO, Jeffrey Housenbold, brought in a new head of ecommerce, who was tasked with evaluating the team and improving financial performance. That executive subsequently fired the prior head of ecommerce and reorganized the group, eliminating Mavromatis’ role along with others held by both men and women, according to the company spokeswoman. Mavromatis was informed that her termination was not related to her performance, the Beast Industries rep said.
From Variety US