As reported by The Hollywood Reporter and other outlets, Ed Brubaker, the Eisner Award-winning comic book writer and showrunner of Amazon MGM’s upcoming Criminal series, is being sued by a former production assistant who alleges he was subjected to sexual, racial and religious harassment while working on the series, among other allegations.
Ijaaz Noohu filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court against Brubaker, fellow executive producer Phillip Barnett, Big Indie Pictures, Big Indie Gemini, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and Amazon.com Services. The complaint, filed Wednesday, contains 12 causes of action, including claims of harassment, discrimination, retaliation, assault and defamation. Noohu is requesting a jury trial as part of the suit.
According to the complaint, Noohu was hired in February 2023 as a production assistant on Criminal and worked as Brubaker’s personal assistant. Brubaker served as the series’ showrunner and executive producer and was Noohu’s direct supervisor.
The complaint alleges that sexual harassment began early in Noohu’s employment. Among the allegations are that Brubaker commented about running his hands through Noohu’s hair, rubbed his back without consent, asked intrusive questions about his sex life and made jokes about rape.
Noohu also alleges repeated racial and national-origin harassment. According to the complaint, people involved with the production made comments involving curry and the “Tiger Mom” stereotype, referenced the Netflix series Never Have I Ever, made assumptions about Noohu’s mathematical abilities and called him “Indian” despite his identifying himself as Sri Lankan. The complaint also alleges religious harassment, including a comment questioning whether Noohu supported Hamas.
The most serious allegation involves a firearm. The complaint alleges that Brubaker pointed a “functional firearm” directly at Noohu’s face and pulled the trigger. It says a senior producer witnessed the incident. The filing does not provide a date for the alleged incident or additional details about the firearm. It also does not identify a senior producer who allegedly witnessed it.
The complaint further alleges that people in positions of authority instructed employees not to document complaints and ignored misconduct occurring in plain view. After about 18 months working on the production, Noohu says he advocated for himself and requested a promotion. The complaint alleges that, in retaliation for opposing the alleged harassment and advocating for himself, he was barred from the set, stripped of equipment and benefits and given an accelerated exit date, which was in late September of 2024.
Noohu also alleges that he was denied a credit for his work on Criminal, and that Brubaker and Barnett made false and disparaging statements about Noohu to third parties, including people in the entertainment industry.
Although Noohu left the production nearly two years before the lawsuit was filed, the complaint says he first filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department and subsequently received a right-to-sue notice. The filing does not provide the dates of either the CRD complaint or the notice. You can read the entire filing on the Graphic Policy website.
Noohu is represented by attorney Fahim Rahman.
Brubaker has not publicly responded to the allegations. The Hollywood Reporter, which first reported on the lawsuit, said Amazon MGM declined to comment while Brubaker and Big Indie Pictures did not respond to requests for comment.
Noohu has a background in filmmaking beyond his work on Criminal, working on productions including Anomalisa and Ramadan America. He has also directed several short films of his own.
Brubaker is best known in comics for his work on series including Criminal, Gotham Central, Captain America and Daredevil. Criminal is based on Brubaker and Phillips’ long-running Image Comics series and was developed as a television series for Amazon MGM Studios.