Jeremy Renner Lawsuit: Yi Zhou, AI Film Fight, and $23K Scam

Jeremy Renner is currently tied to two active legal disputes: a public conflict with Chinese-born filmmaker Yi Zhou, who accuses him of sending unsolicited sexual images and threatening to report her to immigration authorities, and a separate California lawsuit from a woman who says she lost $23,450 in a romance scam run by someone impersonating him. Renner has denied wrongdoing in both matters through his attorney, Marty Singer of Lavely & Singer.

What Yi Zhou Alleges

In early November 2025, Zhou, a Los Angeles-based multimedia artist and founder of Into the Sun Entertainment, went public on Instagram with claims against Renner. She said the actor began contacting her in June 2025 and sent “personal and intimate photographs of himself” without her consent.¹ She also alleged that Renner sent a WhatsApp message containing a pornographic video clip, and that after she confronted him he threatened to “call immigration/ICE” on her.² Zhou posted screenshots she attributed to Renner, including one that read, “Immigration will be notified of your—” before cutting off.³

She expanded on the claims in a November 6, 2025, Daily Mail interview and shared further materials on Instagram under “#CancelJeremyRenner,” including excerpts from her cease-and-desist letter.⁴ Zhou described an August 20, 2025, meeting at Renner’s home in Reno, Nevada, where she said the actor became intoxicated and volatile. She posted photos she said were taken that day showing Renner beside a half-empty wine bottle, and screenshots of messages she sent colleagues expressing fear for her safety.³

Renner’s Denial and Counter-Narrative

Singer categorically denied all of Zhou’s allegations, calling them “false, outrageous and highly defamatory.”⁵ He acknowledged that Renner and Zhou had “a single brief consensual encounter” at a Reno hotel on July 12, 2025, and met again about a month later, but characterized Zhou as the aggressor. According to Singer, Zhou “relentlessly and aggressively harassed and pursued” Renner for months, sending “hundreds of unsolicited and unwanted messages,” including “sexually explicit messages expressing her love.” He said the most recent was sent on October 24, 2025.⁶ Singer contended that Zhou fabricated her accusations in retaliation after Renner rejected her romantic advances and refused to promote her film projects.⁷

Both sides sent cease-and-desist letters within days of each other. Zhou said she sent hers on November 5, 2025, demanding Renner stop “any form of verbal abuse, yelling or intimidation.”⁶ Renner’s team sent its own on November 7, 2025, threatening legal action over what Singer called “false, fabricated and salacious lies.”⁸

The AI Film Fight

A second thread runs through the same relationship: a dispute over Renner’s voice and likeness. Renner and Zhou collaborated on a documentary titled Masters of Cinema 2: Chronicles of Disney, and Renner sat for an interview on July 12, 2025, in Reno.⁹ The disagreement centers on a different project, Stardust Futures: Stars and Scars, an 82-minute AI-animated film Zhou describes as a “Part 2” of the Disney documentary.

Renner’s team says he never agreed to appear in any AI-generated project and has no knowledge of Stardust Futures. Singer’s November 7 cease-and-desist threatened a “multi-millions” dollar suit for “commercial misappropriation” of Renner’s name, voice, and likeness, and questioned whether the voice-over in the film was genuine or AI-synthesized. Zhou counters that Renner signed a Talent Release Form on September 15, 2025, that she reads as covering the documentary “and all promotional, derivative, or related works derived from it.” She maintains that his voice in the film is real, not AI-replicated.⁹ Zhou had sent her own cease-and-desist on October 29, 2025.

The Disputed Resolution

On November 15, 2025, Zhou posted on Instagram that she and Renner had “reached a peaceful and mutually respectful resolution without any settlement money from both sides” and would keep working together.¹⁰ Singer immediately contradicted her, telling TMZ, “There was no deal reached with Yi Zhou to resolve my client Jeremy Renner’s substantial multi million dollar claims against her,” and said Zhou had been told no such agreement existed.¹¹ As of mid-2026, no formal court filings have been reported in either the misconduct dispute or the AI film matter.⁹

The $23,450 Romance Scam Lawsuit

In a completely unrelated matter, Marnie Reeves, a 56-year-old Modesto, California, woman, filed a 549-page complaint against Renner in December 2024. She alleges she was defrauded of $23,450 in an online romance scam.¹² According to the complaint, Reeves began communicating on WhatsApp with someone she believed to be Renner after she liked one of his Instagram posts during his recovery from a January 2023 snowplow accident. Between April and August 2023, that person solicited payments for “fan cards” and communication packages priced between $1,100 and $10,888, directed through an individual identified as “Lasse Larsson,” who claimed to be part of Renner’s management.¹³

Renner’s legal team says he had no involvement, never communicated with Reeves, and has never had any relationship with her. Singer called the case “one of the most absurd lawsuits in my 40-year career” and described it as “frivolous litigation” built on Reeves’s “self-generated belief” that she was in a relationship with the actor.¹² His camp notes that the WhatsApp account Reeves communicated with lacked a verification mark and that the money requests came from someone unrelated to his actual management.¹⁴ Renner has publicly warned fans about impersonation scams, writing on Facebook that scammers “use my photos, fake IDs, videos, and ai voice notes etc to get your money.” His attorneys are seeking dismissal before a trial scheduled for August 2026.¹³

Background: The 2019 Custody Filings

The current disputes surface against an earlier record. In a 2019 custody battle with ex-wife Sonni Pacheco in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Pacheco accused Renner of ongoing substance abuse, of threatening to kill her while intoxicated and using cocaine in 2015, and of firing a gun into the ceiling of their home while their daughter slept nearby. A nanny submitted a supporting declaration.¹⁵ The couple married in 2014, divorced the same year, and share a daughter, Ava, born in 2013. A joint custody agreement approved in 2015 required Renner to pay $13,000 per month in child support.

Renner denied the allegations, submitted to spontaneous drug testing, and accused Pacheco of being motivated by financial interests; his representative called her declarations “dramatizations” and a “one-sided account made with a specific goal in mind.”¹⁵ In a 2025 interview with The Guardian, Renner described the 2019 allegations as “clickbait” that “dehumanizes people” and said he and Pacheco now “get along very well.”¹⁶

1
Page Six. Jeremy Renner Blasts Film Partner After She Claims He Sent Explicit Images, Threatened to Call ICE
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Los Angeles Times. Jeremy Renner, Yi Zhou Misconduct Allegations
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Yahoo Entertainment. Jeremy Renner Secret Texts Alleged
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NextShark. Yi Zhou Releases Evidence of Jeremy Renner Misconduct
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Rolling Stone. Jeremy Renner Denies Filmmaker Allegations, Cease and Desist
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Entertainment Weekly. Jeremy Renner Denies Director Yi Zhou Allegations of Unsolicited Nudes, ICE Threats
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HuffPost. Yi Zhou Jeremy Renner Sexual Allegations Threatened ICE
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People. Jeremy Renner Vehemently Denies Sending Unsolicited Sexual Messages to Female Filmmaker, Threatening to Call ICE
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Deadline. Jeremy Renner Lawsuit Threat AI Movie
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The Independent. Jeremy Renner Yi Zhou Accusations Agreement
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TMZ. Yi Zhou Jeremy Renner Reach Agreement
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Yahoo Entertainment. Jeremy Renner Dragged Into Bizarre $23K Lawsuit
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Rolling Out. Jeremy Renner Romance Scam Lawsuit
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Chosun. Jeremy Renner Romance Scam Lawsuit
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Los Angeles Times. Jeremy Renner Sonni Pacheco Custody Battle
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People. Jeremy Renner Addresses Claims of Violence Made by Ex-Wife