Wizards of Waverly Place Alum Dan Benson Hits Back at David Henrie After Apparent Shade

On Wednesday, actor-turned-OnlyFans star Dan Benson took to Instagram to speak out after his former Wizards of Waverly Place costar, David Henrie, seemingly blocked him on X, formerly Twitter.

Benson -- who played Zeke Beakerman, the on-screen BFF to Henrie's Justin Russo, on the Disney Channel series -- shared a video of himself jokingly fake crying in front of a screenshot that showed Henrie blocked him on X.

"We pretended to be best friends for years. How could you do this to me??" Benson captioned his post.

Benson's post came after he hit back at Henrie on X in the wake of an interview in which his former onscreen BFF appeared to throw shade at him and his work on OnlyFans.

In a recent interview with BuzzFeed, in which he was promoting the Wizards of Waverly Place sequel series, Wizards Beyond Waverly Place, alongside his costars, Henrie, 35, and his castmates were asked to name a star of the original series they would like to see return for the new show.

The group had to choose between Benson, Hayley Kiyoto, Bridgit Mendler, Skyler Samuels, Gregg Sulkin, and Josh Sussman.

After the cast was initially quiet, Henrie then chimed in, smiling as he seemingly looked at a producer off camera.

"I can't believe you put one of these people one here," Henrie said, as his costars appeared to realize who he was referring to. "Millennials understand that."

He then named all of the characters, pausing for emphasis when he read "Zeke Beckerman," and again looking off-camera as his cast members laughed.

A social media user posted a clip of the moment on X, calling out Henrie for his apparent shade of Benson. "David Henrie shaded Dan benson ( Zeke ) because of his new career path 😭😭," the person wrote in the post, which went viral.

Benson caught wind of the post and slammed Henrie in the replies.

"David Henrie can suck my d--k. I'll pay him more than they paid me for Wizards I promise you that," he wrote.

Benson -- who appeared in 32 episodes of Wizards of Waverly Place from 2007 to 2012 -- has previously gotten candid about his decision to become an adult entertainment performer.

In 2023, he explained in a TikTok video that he "accidentally" became an OnlyFans model after nude photos and videos he sent were allegedly leaked online.

"Quickly I learned that my nude photos and videos were all over the web," Benson said at the time, calling it a "pretty traumatic experience" for him. Though he initially tried to rid the Internet of his images, "that was a pretty difficult task" -- and the pictures almost cost him his job at one point after he'd "kind of retired from acting."

"It had a very big negative impact on my life," said Benson.

"Eventually, I decided to stop fighting against it and instead go the other direction and completely lean into it and build out a page and instead of letting people sell my privacy, my -- you know what I mean," he went on.

"I decided to say, 'Screw you, I'm gonna sell it myself,'" explained the former actor. "So I started that adventure last year. I've been having a tremendous amount of fun. I've met a lot of great people in the adult entertainment industry."

While he "accidentally became an adult entertainment performer" by just rolling "with the punches," Benson concluded that, at the end of the day, "it's changed my life for the better."

During an interview with TMZ earlier this year, Benson expressed his disappointment over allegedly not being asked to appear in the Wizards of Waverly Place reboot, but he said he wasn't surprised, given his career.

"I think that it's super exciting that the fans get to kind of relive their childhood again and their old characters they used to love watching are coming back," he told the outlet. "I loved the premise, like, the new idea that they're doing for the show."

"The other side of me is very sad because I know for a fact that I will definitely not be a part of it," he continued with a laugh. "That's all on me. I totally get it. I made choices that made it ... So, it's like I put the chance of bringing back the character I played away when I decided to go along this path of being an adult content creator and I get it."

"So I'm very conflicted, I'm like super happy and also like, dang it. It's a mix of emotions for me right now," Benson said, before adding, "I think that I put them in a situation where they don't have a choice. It's crazy to be an adult content creator and it's crazier to do it so publicly and to be a former child actor from a Disney Channel show."