Despite 10 nominations, Shrinking came up short at the Emmys on Monday, but the Warner Bros Television produced show may be taking centerstage in court soon.
A longtime Key Second Assistant Director on the Jason Segel and Harrison Ford starring series says she was abruptly fired after a long day of shooting on July 10 by Executive Producer Kip Kroeger because of so-called “different needs of production.” In her seven claim compliant filed today in L.A. Superior Court against WBTV, Shrinking EP/director Randall Winston and others, Mindy Tessa McKoin doesn’t buy it.
As the document from attorney Avi Gholian exclaims of the industry vet’s multi-season Shrinking stint: “no performance deficiency, misconduct. or business rationale was identified then or anytime thereafter.”
Watch on Deadline
Filing earlier today with the California Civil Rights Department before going to the LASC docket, McKoin alleges the real reason she was canned was because of reporting an intentional “sexual abuse” by Winston at the June 22, 2024 Shrinking Season 2 wrap party, She says it was because of that and because of her raising a stink about of “inaccurate time records and pay statements.” Production and WBTV problems that Loot and Young Sheldon alum McKoin and her lawyers assert resulted in zero “corrective action” on the former and a lot of her Shrinking bosses not making a “big deal” about the former.
McKoin says the CAA-repped Winston subjected her “to unwelcome, severe harassment because of her sex, including by grabbing and groping her breast without her consent at a work-related function in the presence of a coworker” at the 2024 party. “Such conduct was sufficiently severe to alter the conditions of Plaintiff employment and to create a hostile, intimidating, and offensive working environment.”
An environment made all the worse by WBTV doing nothing about it, according to the plaintiff.
While the sexual harassment and sexual battery claims sit on the top of McKoin’s allegations, it is the pay and timecard tampering of sorts that takes up the bulk of Tuesday’s unspecified damages seeking filing.
In terms of retaliation, McKoin insists she made “bona fide complaints, both orally and in writing, that she was owed unpaid wages and that her time records had been unlawfully altered, and otherwise engaged in conduct protected by the Labor Code, including on or about May 26, May 28, June I0, June 11, June 19, and July I, 2026.” Her filing adds: “Warner Bros. discharged Plaintiff on July 10, 2026 – within 90 days of each of these instances of protected activities.“
“As a direct and proximate result of Warner Bros.’ violation of Labor Code …Plaintiff has suffered and continues to suffer lost wages and work benefits and other actual consequential, and incidental financial losses. as well as emotional distress. humiliation, mental anguish, and anxiety in an amount to be proven at trial.”
WBTV had no comment this evening when contacted by Deadline about the complaint and the allegations McKoin makes. Representatives for the multi-Emmy nominated Winston did no response when Deadline reached out about the claims against their client.