Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - This Harry Potter Star is Now in Prison - The Jamie Waylett Story

Episode Date: September 20, 2025

Jamie Waylett is best known for playing Vincent Crabbe in the first six Harry Potter films, but his life took a sharp turn after the series ended. In 2009, Waylett was arrested for growing illegal plants at his mother’s house. His legal troubles escalated during the 2011 London riots.

So this Harry Potter actor is about to go to prison for some crimes. No, not him. Him. So the actor's name is Jamie, and Jamie is a normal 11-year-old kid when this story starts living in London, and one day, in the year 2000, his whole life changes. Because some casting scouts for Warner Brothers show up to his school. They're looking for kids to fill some roles in an upcoming movie they're making.

And that is when they noticed Jamie. And they're like, you're perfect kid. And even though he's never acted before, boom, he's cast as Vincent Crabb for the movie Harry Potter. And here's a picture of Jamie as Crabb.

You might remember him. And so Jamie goes and he films the first Harry Potter movie and in 2001 it comes out and it blows up. Then he gets asked to come back and he films the second movie and it comes out in 2002 and it blows up too. And so at this point it's like probably 2005 now. and Jamie's around 16 years old, and his whole life is different.

I mean, he's suddenly in one of the biggest film franchises of old time. Like, he's making a little money. He's probably getting recognized on the street. Here's the problem with all this, though. Despite his lucky break, it feels like Jamie doesn't appreciate the opportunity in front of him. I'm just guessing, because it seems he's way more interested in acting cool in front of his co-stars than doing his job as an actor. Like when he's on set, he'll often have an attitude.

Sometimes he sneaks his headphones on the set and he listens to rap music when he should be listening to the director. Sometimes he's just straight up aggressive like he keeps getting into verbal fights with his co-stars, especially this actor, Tom Felton, Tom plays Malfoy. And according to Tom, one day he and Jamie are getting ready to film a scene in the Great Hall. When Jamie starts to get an attitude with him, and then he starts getting aggressive and like, Jamie keeps elbowing him and kicking him under the table, whispering, you're a twet, you're a twet. And Tom's probably like, wait till my father his about this. But Jamie just keeps doing this to him over and over again, until right before the cameras start rolling, and Tom has finally had enough.

And so, pow, he punches Jamie right in the face. And Jamie's nose starts to bleed, and it messes up the whole take, and the director and the production crew are all pissed off at both of them. Poor Tom. And that's not the only story floating around about him. But time goes on. And Jamie, he's 17 now. And he's getting older and he's probably starting to think that he's way too gangster for this Harry Potter nonsense. And rumors start to spread about him.

People say he's doing a lot of partying lately. He's smoking a little zaza, indulging in a bit of cocaine, and hanging out with exotic dancers. It's even alleged that he showed up to the premiere of the fourth Harry Potter movie all high on that Coca-Cola. Now, whether that's actually true or not, it isn't confirmed. Regardless, Jamie is getting a bad rep. And so, more time passes, and it's now 2009. And the dude is 19 now, so he's officially an adult.

And the sixth Harry Potter movie is about to come out, half-blood Prince. And Jamie, he's in it, you know, he's crab, and you can see him there in the background of the scene. But one night, after filming had long finished, he's driving around the... London with a friend. And randomly, he sees a police car drive by. And for some reason, Jamie takes a picture of the police car on his phone. And the police see him taking the picture and they're like, well, that's suspicious. And they pull him over and they search his car. And when they search it, they find a knife under his seat along with eight bags of Zaza. And so police, they take his

phone and they're looking through it for the picture that he took of them. And that is when they find pictures of large cannabis plants. Apparently, Jamie has 10 cannabis plants growing in a tent in his bedroom and there were pictures of them on his phone. And so police, they go to his home and boom, they bust in and they raid the place and they search his bedroom and they find that he has a whole cannabis farm there where he's been growing all these plants. And so bam, he gets arrested. And I don't have a mug shot, but here's a picture of him looking a little douchey. And so eventually Jamie has to go to court over all this. And there, he begs the judge to go easy on him,

and he says that he's a troubled child star, and he's been struggling with fame, and that made him turn to drugs. And I guess the judge buys it. So instead of prison time, he only gets community service. Now, at this point, Jamie, he's putting his career at risk. I mean, you can't be in kids movies and get busted for drugs. You'll get fired.

But Jamie doesn't seem to be thinking like that. He continues to lean in to this thing. bad boy reputation that he's building for himself, and he releases a rap video. Because of course he does. Don't believe a word you say, you never let the burner scream. I'm an animal. I send him to the pearly gates. And the lyrics for his verse include things like first-degree murder, getting messy with the burner. Which to be honest, isn't really that outlandish for a rap song, but it might be if you're in an ongoing series of family-friendly movies like Jamie is. Now at some point, Warner Brothers hears about his drug arrest. And you know, they probably saw his rap videos too,

and they've got a multi-billion dollar film franchise writing on all this. And so I assume it's all of that along with, you know, the production crew being tired of his attitude on set. And that makes WB say, yeah, we don't want this guy back for the next Harry Potter movie. And so the writers of the last two movies, they end up writing another character where his was supposed to be. This scene was supposed to be Crabb's biggest scene in the entire franchise where he dies, and instead they gave it to a different character. And so, boom, it's official. Jamie is fired from Harry Potter. He's just messed up the greatest thing to ever happen to his acting career, but it's not clear if he cares about that, because it's not clear he ever wanted to be an actor. But even so, he is about to make

things much worse. Because now it's 2011, and during this time, something pretty crazy is happening in London. Apparently, police had recently shot a citizen, a black man, and people felt it was unjust, and for this and other reasons, they took to the streets, and they start getting out of control, and people start rioting. And mobs are running through the streets, throwing bottles at police, and setting cars and buildings on fire. It's crazy. But soon, footage of the riot gets out on social media and so more and more people show up to take advantage of the situation, including Jamie. Jamie decides to show up with a gang of friends and they're apparently looking for a fun time and they treat the riot like it's one big party. Like at one point Jamie sees a mob looting a supermarket

so he runs inside and he starts raiding the pharmacy. And then at some point a rioter hands him like a bottle of champagne and is like cheers mate. And so Jamie he starts drinking this stolen bottle of champagne. Stuff like that. But during all this, one of Jamie's rioter friends hands him a Maltau cocktail. And Jamie, always wanting to be gangster, he takes the cocktail and he starts running around the streets with it and this scares the hell out of local business owners because they think he's like trying to burn down their stores. But what Jamie doesn't know is that everything he's doing is being captured by security cameras. And so later, when police are searching through the footage looking for people who were committing crimes, they're able to identify Jamie as the person

with the Maltop cocktail. Like, hey, isn't that that kid from the Harry Potter movie? And so, bam, he gets arrested. And I don't have a mugshot, but here's a picture of him in real life. And ultimately, after all that, Jamie gets sentenced to two years in prison.