Cody Ko #
Introduction #
Cody Ko, a Canadian YouTuber and co-founder of the Tiny Meat Gang podcast network, stepped away from day-to-day operations at TMG Studios in July 2024, weeks after creator Tana Mongeau, host of the Cancelled podcast, said the two had sex when she was 17 years old.
Background Information #
Ko was born Cody Michael Kolodziejzyk on November 22, 1990, in Calgary, Alberta, the son of professional cyclist Greg Kolodziejzyk and his wife Helen. He enrolled at Duke University in North Carolina after being recruited for the swimming and diving team, graduating in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in computer science before moving to Silicon Valley.
Ko began posting to the short-form video platform Vine in 2013 and amassed almost two million followers before the service shut down in 2017. He shifted to YouTube, where he and fellow creator Noel Miller — whom he met while working at the multichannel network Fullscreen — became popular through their reaction series That’s Cringe and the Tiny Meat Gang Podcast, which the pair founded in 2017 and which has published over 300 episodes. In 2021, Ko and Miller expanded the podcast into Tiny Meat Gang Studios (later renamed TMG Studios), a comedy podcast network whose slate came to include shows such as The Zach and Walid Show, Insanely Chill, Meat Locker, and Trillionaire Mindset.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #
In May 2024, during a “hot seat” segment at a live recording of Tana Mongeau’s Cancelled podcast, Mongeau said she and Ko slept together when she was a minor. “I was literally 17,” she said; Ko would have been 25 at the time. Mongeau reiterated the claim at a later live recording of her podcast, and the story drew increased attention after Rolling Stone reported on the allegation the following month; per Wikipedia, it did not receive widespread attention from other YouTubers and the larger media until YouTuber D’Angelo Wallace uploaded a video covering the subject in July.
Ko did not immediately respond, and representatives for Ko did not respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment; representatives for Mongeau declined to comment. Mongeau has said the encounter took place in Florida when she was 17 and Ko was 25; Wikipedia notes that Florida law forbids sex where one partner is under 18 and the other over 24.
Public Reaction and Consequences #
Mongeau has said she does not consider her alleged experience with Ko to have been traumatic, but she said in podcast appearances on the show Just Trish that she has received harassment from Ko fans for speaking out. At the height of the renewed attention, Ko was criticized online by fans for failing to comment, instead attending a Las Vegas beach DJ set where he fist bumped to a remix of Justin Bieber’s song “Sorry.”
On Monday, July 29, 2024, TMG Studios announced that Ko would be stepping away. “As we enter into this next phase of the studio, we wanted to let you know that Cody will not be involved in the day-to-day operations at TMG Studios,” the statement read. “What has transpired over the past few weeks is a personal issue for him, and Cody wants to remove any effect this is having on your professional and personal lives and the work you and our other hosts have done to make TMG Studios so successful.”
On Wednesday, Noel Miller confirmed the news in a short statement posted to his Instagram Stories. “Hey everyone,” Miller wrote, “I wanted to say thank you for the messages and support. It means a lot to me,” and he said he would return with a new episode the following week. The flagship show, founded by Miller and Ko in 2017 and published on YouTube for over 300 episodes, will continue with Miller as its sole host. At least one TMG podcast, Emergency Intercom, hosted by Drew Phillips and Enya Umanzor, announced it was leaving the network entirely, though the hosts did not reference the Ko allegations directly. Wikipedia records that the departures left the network with six podcasts and that, according to Social Blade, Ko’s YouTube channel lost around 250,000 subscribers in the following 30 days.
Current Status #
The announcements were, according to Rolling Stone, the first times Ko had directly addressed any of the allegations, and it remained unclear shortly afterward whether Ko would return to his hosting duties or to the podcast network. TMG Studios did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment on the news. Wikipedia states that Ko subsequently took a hiatus from YouTube for several months, gradually returning from December 2024.
Impact on Their Career/Life #
The controversy forced Ko, who had built TMG Studios with Miller over seven years, to step back from the company he co-founded: the flagship podcast continued without him, the network lost Emergency Intercom, and his channel shed roughly 250,000 subscribers within a month. Wikipedia summarizes the episode by noting that Ko stepped down from day-to-day operations in 2024 after Mongeau accused him of statutory rape.
The allegations arrived during a period of major personal change for Ko: he married Kelsey Kreppel in February 2023, and the couple welcomed their first child, Otis, in January 2024, months before Mongeau’s account became public. For a creator known for often crude and profane comedy who had built a following of millions across YouTube and Vine, the episode left his professional future uncertain.