“Yellowstone” actress Q’Orianka Kilcher has been charged with two felony counts of staff’ compensation fraud, California officers introduced Monday.
Kilcher, 32, is accused of amassing over $96,000 in incapacity advantages regardless of having labored on the favored Kevin Costner-led drama for a number of months through the time that she mentioned she was too injured to work.
She self-surrendered and was arraigned in Could, California Division of Insurance coverage officers mentioned. She pleaded not responsible to the costs final month, based on Los Angeles County Superior Court docket information.
In 2018, Kilcher reportedly injured her neck and shoulder whereas filming “Dora and the Misplaced Metropolis of Gold,” a live-action adaptation of the youngsters’s TV present “Dora the Explorer.”
Kilcher noticed a health care provider “a couple of occasions that yr” however allegedly stopped attending therapy and “didn’t reply to the insurance coverage firm dealing with her declare on behalf of her employer,” based on the Division of Insurance coverage.
In October 2019, Kilcher contacted the insurance coverage firm and requested therapy, telling the physician “that she had been supplied work since her damage occurred however had been unable to simply accept it” because of the severity of her neck ache, the division mentioned.
Primarily based on these statements, insurance coverage officers mentioned, she was paid momentary whole incapacity advantages — $96,838 between October 2019 and September 2021.
“After reviewing wage data from her employer, the investigation discovered Kilcher had labored as an actress on the tv present ‘Yellowstone’ from July 2019 to October 2019, regardless of her statements to the physician that she had been unable to work for a yr,” the division mentioned.
The physician mentioned that the incapacity funds wouldn’t have been approved “if that they had been conscious” of Kilcher’s latest employment historical past, based on the Division of Insurance coverage, which mentioned information present that Kilcher began receiving advantages 5 days after final engaged on the present.
Kilcher performed Angela Blue Thunder within the third season of “Yellowstone,” considered one of TV’s hottest dramas. The season aired on the Paramount Community in 2020.
She broke out in 2005 for her portrayal of Pocahontas within the acclaimed interval piece “The New World,” directed by Terrence Malick and co-starring Colin Farrell and Christian Bale.
