Here’s Where Dream Is Now After Member Melissa Schuman’s Nick Carter Allegations

Melissa Schuman

One of the founding members of Dream, Melissa Schuman left the group to pursue an acting career in April 2002. She appeared in the movies Love Don’t Cost a Thing (2003) and the TV movie The Hollow (2004) alongside Backstreet Boy Nick Carter, and later starred in Silent Scream (2005). In 2004, she recorded a single with Carter titled “There For Me”.

In 2017, Schuman claimed in a blog post titled ‘Don’t Worry, I Won’t Tell Anybody’ that Carter had sexually assaulted her in 2003 when she was 18 years old. He denied allegations of rape, claiming the incident was consensual.

In 2023, she sued Carter for sexual assault thanks to the opening of a statute of limitation window for sexual assault claims made by adult survivors. Schuman said: “I’ve faced extraordinary backlash for standing up for myself; I am not the first, however my intention is that I am the last. It’s time that powerful figures in the music industry get the message that they can no longer afford to enable and protect sexual predators. I’m fighting to make the music industry a safer place to work and perform,” per a statement obtained by People.

In the docu-series Fallen Idols: Nick and Aaron Carter, Schuman described how the duet with Carter made her feel. “When I look back on this song now, it feels almost premeditated, where it was presented as if it was going to actually help me, but in reality, it feels more like an alibi for him,” she said.

“People don’t understand and are like, ‘Well, you followed him on Twitter. You sent him condolences. You liked a tweet.’ I was truly trying my best to find forgiveness for him and move on with my life.” She continues to fight for herself and other survivors of sexual assault on TikTok and Instagram.

Holly Blake-Arnstein

Not much is known about where Holly Blake-Arnstein is now after she left Dream in 2003; later joining a California-based band, Whirl Magnet. From what we can tell, she has no social media presence.

On May 11, 2015, the original members of Dream posted a video online performing a cappella version of their 2000 single “He Loves U Not” and later announced they would be reuniting for their first single together in 13 years, titled “I Believe” in 2016. But it was short-lived; the group disbanded once more in 2016.

Diana Ortiz

Having replaced Alex Chester in 1999, Diana Ortiz became the main foursome of Dream. “Because we were a pop group, I think we were treated just a little bit differently. And it’s not just the fact that we were a pop group, but I think it was because we were the youngest artists on the label,” she recalled to BuzzFeed in 2016 about working with Diddy’s hip-hop label, Bad Boy.

“We were treated with some TLC and made sure that we had things taken care of by our parents and the people that we had in our camp, making sure everything went smoothly on a hip-hop label. But I don’t know… without being on Bad Boy, I don’t think Dream would’ve been what it was.”

When the group disbanded in 2003, Ortiz started a new group under the name Lady Phoenix alongside Schuman and Poole. These days, it’s a little hard to know what she’s up to because she’s not on social media but seemingly, she’s left showbusiness.

Ashley Poole

Ashley Poole was one of the original founding members of Dream and returned in 2016 when the group very briefly reunited. She’s married with two kids and runs a mommy blog @the.dream.mom on Instagram and has more than 14,000 followers. On March 21, 2023, she claimed that Diddy sat each of the Dream members down and pointed out how much weight each of them needed to lose.

“I was praised for being ‘the skinniest’ one and it became my identity,” she shared on social media. “We were put on strict diets with low to no carbs. At night, I would sneak into the bathroom to eat protein bars and then hide the evidence. Today, I fight those voices with mirror work. I say daily body love affirmations to myself in the mirror.”

Alex Chester

Kasey Sheridan

Kasey Sheridan was not a founding member of Dream—she joined in the fall of 2002 after Schuman left to pursue acting. She was 15 years old at the time, but it would be short-lived. After the group recorded their sophomore album, its lead single “Krazy” flopped. Bad Boy dropped the group after that. Not much is known about Sheridan’s movements after the group dissolved but seemingly she’s not working in music or entertainment anymore.