'Drag Race' Season 12 Queen Sherry Pie Apologizes After 5 Actors Accuse Her of Catfishing

A "RuPaul's Drag Race" Season 12 contestant is apologizing after five actors accused the performer of catfishing, according to a new report from BuzzFeed.

Joey Gugliemelli, who is currently starring on the reality show as her drag persona Sherry Pie, took to Facebook Thursday to apologize for allegedly catfishing five young aspiring actors over the course of several years.

At least five young actors told BuzzFeed that Gugliemelli catfished them over a number years viral email, alleging he posed as a casting director and coerced them into sending "embarrassing audition tapes of themselves saying and doing degrading things," the website writes. One of the men said he agreed to masturbate on camera as part of the process.

BuzzFeed reports that the men were Gugliemelli's former classmates at SUNY Cortland in New York as well as actors he worked with in a Nebraska theater company.

"I just felt really stupid. I felt really dumb," David Newman, 26, told BuzzFeed. Newman is a Cortland alum "who filmed scenes in 2015 wearing a tank top and shorts for Gugliemelli for a fake musical version of 'A Nightmare Before Christmas' that he was told Tim Burton was affiliated with," BuzzFeed writes.

"Everyone does bad stuff, but he never apologized," Newman added. "He has a national audience watching him now and people have to know what he did. He did it to a lot of people."

Though Gugliemelli didn't respond to BuzzFeed about the story, the website says he published a Facebook post "one minute before publication" of their story. When the website asked VH1, which airs "Drag Race," for a comment, the network referred the publication to Gugliemelli's Facebook post.

"This is Joey, I want to start by saying how sorry I am that I caused such trauma and pain and how horribly embarrassed and disgusted I am with myself," Gugliemelli wrote. "I know that the pain and hurt that I have caused will never go away and I know that what I did was wrong and truly cruel.

"Until being on 'RuPaul's Drag Race,' I never really understood how much my mental health and taking care of things meant. I learned on that show how important 'loving yourself' is and I don't think I have ever loved myself," he continued. "I have been seeking help and receiving treatment since coming back to NYC. I truly apologize to everyone I have hurt with my actions.

"I also want to say how sorry I am to my sisters of season 12 and honestly the whole network and production company. All I can do is change the behavior and that starts with me and doing that work," the performer added.

Accusations made against Gugliemelli appeared in a March 5 article from Instinct magazine after a Facebook status by Ben Shimkus, 25, went viral earlier this week.

BuzzFeed also spoke with Shimkus, who details his experience. Josh Lillian, a 23-year-old Australian actor working in Nebraska, and his friend Landon Summers, 28, also spoke with BuzzFeed about their alleged interactions with Gugliemelli.

Click here to read BuzzFeed's full story and the accusations from the men.