Actress Marisol Nichols plays Hermoine Lodge on the popular Warner Bros and Netflix series Riverdale, but in real life she goes undercover to catch sex traffickers and rescue children caught in modern-day slavery.
After learning about human trafficking, the Chicago native started working with law enforcement and state and federal legislators for the past decade to help catch child sexual predators and human traffickers by going undercover.
She started the Foundation for a Slavery Free World, a non-profit that produces events in Hollywood to raise awareness on trafficking and award individuals and other organizations for their work. She serves as the executive director.
“I…have since gone undercover to do more and use sort of my acting skills to put pedophiles behind bars,” she told the Consider Before Consuming podcast. “It’s a lot of fun.”
Nichols told host Garrett Johnson it’s the best feeling in the world.
“I can’t tell you, you know, mothers, their wives crying, saying, ‘I think he was molesting my daughter,’…other people coming forward. Like it really just kind of provides closure for anyone that, that particular person has been in contact with,” she explained.
With the supply and demand of human trafficking so great in the United States, Nichols urges everyone to get involved in fighting back.
“First, get yourself educated,” she said. “Please go on Fight the New Drug. Please read about this and how pornography affects this world…Then honestly, there’s places in your local town that need help, that need volunteers, that need supplies that need these things. And so it really doesn’t take much just Google and call up your local organization and go, hi. I’d like to help. What do you need? Right. That’s all.”
“I believe everybody doing their part can make a difference and we have to, and honestly you’ll feel so much better about yourself,” Nichols said, “because it’s hard to sleep once you know all these things. Once you start doing something about it, you can sleep a little better and you can get other people to do it with you and you can really, really make a difference.”
LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH MARISOL NICHOLS BELOW:
Caleb Parke is the managing editor for ToddStarnes.com. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and connect with him at calebparke.com.