Will Smith sued for sexual harassment, accused of 'deliberately grooming' tour violinist

Will Smith was accused of sexual harassment by Brian King Joseph in a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles just before the new year, according to documents obtained by Fox News Digital.

Joseph, a professional violinist, alleges Smith was "deliberately grooming and priming Mr. Joseph for further sexual exploitation" in the complaint against the Academy Award-winning actor and associates with his Treyball Studios Management, Inc.

After his first performance with Smith in December 2024, the "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It" singer allegedly hired Joseph to join his "Based on a True Story: 2025 Tour." 

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Joseph claimed their "relationship grew even closer" after Smith offered him a chance to play on several tracks of the rapper's upcoming album. 

"Smith and Plaintiff began spending additional time alone, with Smith even telling Plaintiff that ‘You and I have such a special connection, that I don’t have with anyone else,’ and other similar expressions indicating his closeness to Plaintiff," documents state.

Joseph allegedly joined the first leg of the tour in March 2025 in Las Vegas, where he was provided a hotel room booked by Smith and his team. He claimed "no other individuals besides … the crew and hotel staff would have had access" to his personal room.

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The violinist, who competed on "America's Got Talent" in 2018, claimed to place his room key in his bag, which was left in a van responsible for transporting the cast and crew around. After a rehearsal at the venue, management allegedly spent hours retrieving the bag. 

When Joseph returned to his hotel room later that evening, he claimed to have "discovered evidence suggesting that an unknown person had unlawfully entered the room." Joseph subsequently called hotel security.

"The evidence included a handwritten note addressed to Plaintiff by name, which read ‘Brian, I’ll be back no later [sic] 5:30, just us (drawn heart), Stone F,’" the lawsuit states. "Among the remaining belongings were wipes, a beer bottle, a red backpack, a bottle of HIV medication with another individual’s name, an earring, and hospital discharge paperwork belonging to a person unbeknownst to Plaintiff."

Joseph feared that an unknown individual would return to his room to engage in sexual acts, documents said, and he "immediately notified hotel security and representatives for Defendant, obtained photo documentation, requested a room change, and called the local non-emergency police line (311) to report the incident."

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Days later, Joseph claims, Smith's team began "blaming" him for the incident. 

"Rather than being protected against further assault, and for attempting to understanding Plaintiff’s complaint, Plaintiff was shamed by Defendant and told that he was being terminated," the complaint stated.

"When Plaintiff requested … further reasoning, Tim Miller, acting on behalf of Defendants, redirected the blame for the termination onto Plaintiff, replying, ‘I don’t know, you tell me, because everyone is telling me that what happened to you is a lie, nothing happened, and you made the whole thing up. So, tell me, why did you lie and make this up?’"

Joseph, at the request of Miller, compiled a timeline "to explain the traumatic series of events that occurred that evening." 

"However, following Plaintiff's report and termination, Defendant hired another violinist to assume the same position on the tour," documents stated. "This hiring strongly suggested that Defendant's stated reason for the termination was pretextual."

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"The facts strongly suggest that Defendant Willard Carroll Smith II was deliberately grooming and priming Mr. Joseph for further sexual exploitation. The sequence of events, Smith’s prior statements to Plaintiff, and the circumstances of the hotel intrusion all point to a pattern of predatory behavior rather than an isolated incident," the lawsuit states.

"Defendant's actions caused Plaintiff severe emotional distress, economic loss, reputational harm, and other damages. Plaintiff was also harmed as a result of the stress of losing his job his health deteriorated causing major physiological damage. Plaintiff suffered from PTSD and other mental illness as a result of the termination."

Representatives for Smith did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

Joseph filed his complaint after a $3 million lawsuit was filed against Jada Pinkett Smith by a former associate, Bilaal Salaam.

Salaam claimed Jada approached him with physical threats of violence and demanded he sign a nondisclosure agreement while at a private gathering at a movie theater in Calabasas for her husband's birthday in September 2021.