American comedian Louis C.K. has been accused of sexual misconduct by five women who came forward to give their testimony in a new report by the New York Times.

Four fellow comedians - Dana Min Goodman, Julia Wolov, Rebecca Corry and Abby Schachner - and a fifth woman who spoke on condition of anonymity made allegations about the 50 year old star.

Goodman and Wolov both claimed that C.K. invited them to his hotel room after a show back in 2002 at the US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, before taking off his clothes and masturbating in front of them. The others alleged that he also masturbated in front of them, or over the phone, or asked if he could.

Louis CKLouis C.K. has been accused of sexual impropriety by five women

Corry told the New York Times that C.K. was a guest star on a TV pilot in which she appeared in 2005, when he asked if he could go to her dressing room so she could watch him perform a sex act on himself. She said she rebuked him, reminding him that he had a daughter and a pregnant wife.

Schachner said she called Louis C.K. in 2003 to invite him to one of her shows and was dumbfounded to realise during their phone conversation that he was masturbating. “I felt very ashamed,” she said.

More: Kevin Spacey to be edited out of an entire film, to be replaced by Christopher Plummer

The fifth woman said that, while she was working with the comedian in the ‘90s, he repeatedly asked her to watch him masturbate. She went along with his requests, even though she knew it was wrong. “He abused his power,” she stated.

The movie’s distributor, The Orchard, said in a statement on Thursday night: “In light of the allegations considering Louis CK references in today's New York Times, we are cancelling tonight's premiere of I Love You, Daddy. “There is never a place for the behaviour detailed in these allegations. As a result, we are giving careful consideration to the timing and release of the film and continuing to review the situation.”

The same night, Stephen Colbert’s ‘The Late Show’ said it would be cancelling his scheduled appearance on the show, and streaming service HBO revealed it would be purging all of his stand-up material from its platforms, and that Louis C.K. would no longer be participating in the charity comedy special ‘Night of Too Many Stars’ later in November.

Louis C.K., a divorced father of two, has dismissed the allegations as “rumours”.

More: Selma Blair and Rachel McAdams detail sexual harassment encounters with James Toback