An actress from the hit show “Yellowstone” has been charged with workers compensation fraud.
Actress Q’Orianka Kilcher had been illegally collecting about $97,000 in disability benefits while also working on the TV show, the Association Press reported.
Kilcher is known for her four episode stint as Angela Blue Thunder in the show. She also played Pocahontas in the 2005 movie “The New World,” as well as acting in the 2019 “Dora and the Lost City of Gold.”
Kilcher is also known for being an environmental and human right activist.
She was even appointed as a youth ambassador for Amnesty International and for Amazon Watch, according to her Emmy’s biography.
In 2010, Kilcher was arrested outside the White House during a protest over the multinational extractive industry’s effect on communities. She had chained herself to a fence and had her mother pour a black substance over her as a visualization.
But now her fraud case and charges from the California Department of Insurance are bringing her into the headlines in a new way.
It was October of 2018, while working on “Dora” that Kilcher allegedly injured her neck and right shoulder, according to the AP.
“She saw a doctor a few times that year but stopped treatment and did not respond to the insurance company handling her claim on behalf of her employer,” the California Department of Insurance said in a statement, MSN reported.
Have you watched the show “Yellowstone”?
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But then a year later, in 2019, Kilcher contacted the insurance company and said she needed treatment.
She told the doctor who was handling her issues that she had been offered work, but the pain from her injury was too severe to allow her to work.
“Based on Kilcher’s statements to the doctor, she began receiving temporary total disability benefits,” the statement from the California Department of Insurance continued.
But despite her injury claims, she appeared in the third season of “Yellowstone,” which aired in August 2020, but was filmed between July and October of 2019 — the same time she had told the doctor she was too injured to work.
The Memorial Day Weekend Marathon starts today at 10am ET, only on @ParamountNet. Who’s watching with us? #YellowstoneTV pic.twitter.com/4YlZJnVhB8
— Yellowstone (@Yellowstone) May 28, 2022
“When told about Kilcher’s recent employment history, the doctor on her claim stated if they had been aware of it they would have never granted her the disability payments,” the insurance department said.
“From October 14, 2019, through September 9, 2021, Kilcher’s received $96,838 in undeserved disability benefits.”
Neither she nor her attorney have commented on the situation.
Kilcher’s next court date is scheduled for Aug. 7.
