Yellowstone Actor Q'orianka Kilcher Charged With Workers Compensation Fraud

Yellowstone actor Q'orianka Kilcher has been charged with two felony counts of workers' compensation fraud for allegedly collecting disability benefits even though she was able to work.

Kilcher allegedly collected $96,838 in benefits after injuring her neck and right shoulder while filming Dora and the Lost City of Gold in October 2018. According to the California Department of Insurance, Kilcher was healthy enough to work on Yellowstone the following year, despite claiming she was disabled.

Although Kilcher was arraigned and pleaded not guilty on May 27, the department did not announce the charges until Monday.

Kilcher's attorney, Michael Becker, released a statement to Variety saying that Kilcher "never intentionally accepted benefits that she did not believe she was entitled to."

He added, "As such, Ms. Kilcher will vigorously defend herself and asks that she be afforded the presumption of innocence both in and outside the courthouse."

Kilcher appeared in four episodes of Yellowstone in 2020, playing Angela Blue Thunder. The actor also starred in The Alienist, Terrence Malick's The New World, in which she played Pocahontas, and the 2019 Dora film.

The Department of Insurance also claims that after the injury, Kilcher went to a doctor a few times but stopped getting treatment and did not respond to an inquiry from her employer's insurance company. Then, in 2019, she sought treatment again, allegedly telling a doctor that her neck pain had become so severe that she had been forced to turn down jobs and was not working for a year. At that point, she began to receive temporary disability benefits, according to the department.

After investigating Kilcher's wage statements, the department found that she had been working on Yellowstone from July 2019 to October 2019 — before seeking treatment — and the job ended five days before Kilcher began collecting benefits.

Becker denied any wrongdoing on Kilcher's part. "Third party doctors verified her injury and entitlement to benefits," he said in the statement. "Ms. Kilcher was at all times candid with her doctors and treatment providers."

Kilcher's next scheduled court date is August 7.

Yellowstone is currently streaming on Paramount+.

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Deena ElGenaidi's writing has been featured in Nylon, MTV News, Insider, The AV Club, and more. You can follow her on Twitter @deenaelg.