Full story of Nickelodeon star Tylor Chase’s fall to homelessness
Full story of Nickelodeon star Tylor Chase’s fall to homelessness
Daily Mail Online2h
Tylor Chase was once the fresh-faced teen actor in a hit TV show. Now, age 36, he roams the streets of Riverside, California, picking up cigarette butts and discarded Christmas cards. ‘It’s not too shabby,’ the former Nickelodeon star told the Daily Mail on Monday. ‘Life always gets better, keep your head up.’ After footage of an unrecognizable Chase circulated online this weekend, the Daily Mail tracked him down – and unearthed his long rap sheet, as his mother controversially warns fans not to offer help. At age 15, Arizona-born Chase got his big break on the Nickelodeon show Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide as the brainy, fast-talking Martin Qwerly. He appeared in all three of the show’s seasons from 2004 to 2007 – but then, apart from a few of other small parts, his acting career fizzled.
He headed to Georgia to live with his father and in 2014 began posting videos of his poetry readings on YouTube, writing that gives a glimpse in the former child star’s mental state. ‘I’m a leaf in a running gutter with the inevitable fate of ending up in a drain,’ he said in one poem, titled simply ‘Bipolar’, in 2014. ‘I have a hard time in life. I know that I can make it better, but right now, I’m a magician who has misplaced his top hat and rabbits. No one comes to my shows any more. ‘I’m chained into my bedroom by the gravity of bipolar. Perhaps I am doomed. Perhaps I have done nothing. Perhaps I am nothing.’Â Chase eventually moved to Riverside, where his mother works as a realtor, ‘about seven to nine years’ ago, he told the Daily Mail.
He tried to pursue artistic work, self-publishing two fantasy novels in January and July 2020 under the pen name Shrine Tylor, about a magical painter who defeats a vampire king and goes to Heaven. He also continued posting YouTube videos of his poems and narrated chapters from his books until October 2021. But Chase also began spending more time on the streets, racking up an extensive arrest record. Riverside County court records list 12 criminal cases against him since August 2023, including eight this year. His two most recent arrests were for alleged shoplifting of items under $950, and being under the influence of a controlled substance. A judge issued a warrant in both cases, which are still ongoing, though Riverside Police Department Public Information Officer Ryan Railsback said Tylor is not wanted for any crimes.
‘During all of our interactions, he has been cordial and cooperative with our officers,’ Railsback told the Daily Mail on Monday. ‘We do not know how long he has been experiencing homelessness,’ Railsback said, noting that the department’s Public Safety Engagement Team ‘contact him at least once a week and consistently offer a variety of resources, including assistance with temporary shelter options.’ Railsback told TMZ that Chase has consistently declined offers of shelter, drug or alcohol treatment and mental health services offered by the department’s outreach division. He added: ‘Regarding family, I am not aware of any attempts by officers to contact relatives on his behalf.’
When the Daily Mail found Chase, he was digging around in the dirt behind a 7-Eleven on a busy street near the city of Riverside, an hour’s drive east of Los Angeles. He was dressed in a torn purple waterproof jacket, a scruffy LA Raiders polo shirt and ill-fitting pants emblazoned with the faces of characters from the animated Nickelodeon show Rugrats. His hands were cut and blistered, dirt caked under his fingernails. In one hand, he was clutching a fistful of holiday cards – and he seemed joyful to hear it was three days until Christmas. ‘They’re very beautiful. I just like to cherish the idea of them, I would say,’ he told the Daily Mail. ‘I get excited, festive, merry spirit. It seems like it is time to celebrate pretty soon.’ While he appeared unable to answer questions about his recent past, his face lit up when he realized he had been recognized as a former TV star.
‘You heard about Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide? We started in 2004 and went to the third season in 2007. After that we had a wrap party, the festivities, like a happy holiday,’ he said. Shuffling along the street, Chase was constantly working his jaw, grimacing and gurning while squinting and occasionally looking up at the sky. Though disheveled, he was upbeat, insisting that he was not homeless, and repeating his gratitude for friends, family and strangers who helped him with food and shelter. ‘It’s not really like that, I have friends and family. I stay around here locally. My mom is here,’ he said. ‘I have a lot of good people helping me. ‘It’s not too shabby. A lot of people help out. It goes a long way. ‘I have family and friends, and the housing shelter assistance program. There’s graceful charity from the grace of God’s family people. That’s a pretty chill aspect of it all. It’s a true privilege, obviously.’
When offered food, he asked for marijuana. ‘I could use maybe a joint or a bong. Do you guys smoke weed?’ he said. A Daily Mail reporter instead gave him a cheese pastry, an apple and a bottle of water. He told the Daily Mail that he ‘likes to vape’ and takes ‘Prozac, Adderall, Sudafed, Wellbutrin or also Zoloft’, all of which he said he received from a psychiatrist – though he denied being diagnosed with any mental health conditions. Chase said that he was considering moving back to Georgia, where he would try to get into ‘a housing assistance program.’ ‘I’m not really active homeless at this time, I’m thinking that I would like to go see my dad, relatively shortly, in the state of Georgia,’ he said. ‘I have the whole setup to stay out there, a room out there hopefully… Probably a housing assistance program in Georgia most likely.’
His mother, Paula Moisio, works as realtor for Realty One Group in Riverside, and has a home nearby. She declined to comment when approached by the Daily Mail. After discovering Chase on a Riverside street in September, Instagram user Citlalli Wilson set up a GoFundMe for him that raised $1,200 – but Moisio asked her to take it down. ‘Tylor needs medical attention not money. But he refuses it,’ she wrote in a text message that Wilson posted online. ‘I appreciate your effort. But money would not be a benefit to him. I have gotten him several phones, but he loses them within a day or two. He can’t manage money for his meds by himself.’ Tylor’s Nickelodeon co-stars expressed their shock and dismay after seeing the tragic videos of him down-and-out. Actors Devon Werkheiser, Daniel Curtis Lee and Lindsey Shaw addressed the news on Ned’s Declassified Podcast Survival Guide on September 24.
‘There was some bad news that I received earlier this week about our dear friend Tylor Chase. It was a lot to process for me,’ Lee said, describing the video as ‘scary’. ‘When I first saw it, I was angry, because I was like, why put a camera on someone’s face in hard times? But then I was upset with myself because I feel powerless because there’s not much that I felt I could do.’ Lee said he wanted to ‘go and see him’ and ‘try to connect with him somehow’, but was conflicted, adding that he doesn’t ‘want to waste my time and put him on the spot. Shaw agreed that she was ‘in the same boat’ as Lee and wanted to go see Chase in person. Werkheiser, who has not seen Chase in 20 years since the show wrapped told TMZ that it is ‘heartbreaking to see him this way.’
‘My only hope is that from this exposure, someone with real understanding and resources can step in, get Tylor into treatment, and help him get back on track,’ he said. ‘We all want a happy ending.’ On Monday, former child actor Shaun Weiss, who appeared on Disney’s Mighty Ducks, pledged to try to help Chase. Weiss, 47, struggled with his addiction himself, and said in a video posted to Instagram that he had ‘received many messages’ about Chase. ‘I reached out to some friends of mine and we have a bed for him at a detox and we have a place for him to go and get long-term treatment,’ he said. ‘All we need to do now is find him. I’m not in Los Angeles or I would go look for him myself.’ The Daily Mail has reached out to Weiss to provide Tylor’s location. Pictured:Â Tylor Chase Mom Paula Moisio.
