Caitlin Sanchez, the actress who loaned her voice to the title character of the U.S. animated series "Dora the Explorer," is suing Nickelodeon, records show.
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A lawsuit filed in New York Wednesday claimed Sanchez, 14, and her parents were pressured into signing contracts they didn't understand and cheated out of millions of dollars since she took over the voice role in 2007, the New York Daily News said.
"I've never seen as convoluted and inscrutable contract as I've seen here," Sanchez's lawyer John Balestriere told the newspaper.
Balestriere said in the lawsuit Nickelodeon and parent company Viacom failed to pay Sanchez for hundreds of hours of recording sessions. He also alleged the child was forced to promote the iconic kids' show all over the country for a "meager travel stipend of $40 a day."
Michael Fricklas, executive vice president and general counsel for Viacom, told the Daily News the lawsuit "is completely without merit."
A Nickelodeon publicist told People.com Sanchez is no longer playing the preschool-aged Dora because her voice has recently changed.