Federal Judge Dismisses Former Stylist Asha Daniels’ Lawsuit Against Lizzo’s Touring Company

A federal judge has shut down the remaining claims from former wardrobe stylist Asha Daniels, handing Lizzo’s touring company a major victory in a legal battle dating back to 2023.

A federal judge has dismissed the remaining claims in the Lizzo lawsuit brought by former stylist Asha Daniels against the singer’s production company, Big Grrrl Big Touring, Inc. According to Rolling Stone, U.S. District Judge Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha ruled Tuesday that Daniels’ case could not proceed.

Daniels filed suit in September 2023 after working as a wardrobe stylist on Lizzo’s European tour, alleging she experienced bullying as well as sexual and racial harassment in what she described as an unsafe and sexually charged workplace. The litigation continued against Big Grrrl Big Touring after Lizzo was dismissed as an individual defendant in December 2024.

In the latest ruling, Aenlle-Rocha found that Daniels had not identified conduct by company employees sufficient to establish general hostility toward women or disparate treatment between men and women. The judge also rejected her disability-discrimination theory, finding that the injuries at issue did not qualify for protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Daniels’ attorney Ron Zambrano said his client was disappointed by the decision and argued that the court had weighed evidence that should have been considered by a jury. The ruling grants summary judgment to the defendants, ending the remaining federal claims in Daniels’ case at the district-court level.

The dispute had already narrowed substantially before Tuesday’s decision. In 2024, the court dismissed Lizzo and tour manager Carlina Gugliotta as individual defendants and rejected several claims connected to Daniels’ work in Europe, where the court found the U.S. employment statutes she invoked did not apply.

The Daniels case is separate from the lawsuit filed in 2023 by three former backup dancers, who accused Lizzo and others of workplace misconduct and discrimination. Lizzo has consistently denied allegations of wrongdoing, while the dancers’ litigation has followed its own legal path apart from the now-dismissed stylist case.