Actors accuse ex-Hollywood agent of abuse: Allegations against Tyler Grasham, fired by APA, renew fears about vulnerability of young performers

LOS ANGELES - For Jack Edwards, a 15-year-old British actor, it seemed like "the opportunity of a lifetime" - watching a play in London's West End with a Hollywood agent.

In April 2010, the agent, Tyler Grasham of the Beverly Hills-based Agency for the Performing Arts, or APA, was in town with an actor client, and through a mutual friend Edwards and a couple of other theater students had snagged an invite to join them for a showing of "Grease."

But the night quickly took a dark turn, according to Edwards and another friend who spoke to The Times, when the then-44-old-year-old agent bought the teenagers round after round of alcoholic drinks before and after the show.

Edwards said that he ended up in Grasham's hotel room, swallowing a pill that the agent gave him to calm his anxiety. He next awoke in a bed, he said, feeling physically unable to move while Grasham fondled his genitals. Edwards' friend, who said he was in the next bed over, recalled hearing Edwards struggle.

Edwards, now 23, made these allegations in an interview and a written statement submitted