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Chad Allen Profile |
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Birth Date: June 5, 1974
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Birth Place: Cerritos, California, USA
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Birth Name: Chad Allen Lazzari
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Height: 5'7"
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Biography |
Chad Allen Lazzari (born June 5, 1974 in Cerritos,
California, U.S.) is an American actor. Performing since he
was a child, Allen is perhaps best known for appearing on
the television series Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman. He has a
twin sister named Charity.
In 1996 at age 21, Allen was outed as gay in US tabloids
after a man he was seeing sold photos of the couple kissing
in a swimming pool at a party. He has since become an
activist for the LGBT community in addition to his
continuing acting and producing career. Allen has been
featured in The Advocate magazine multiple times and has
appeared on its cover.
Allen portrayed lead character Donald Strachey, a gay
private detective in a monogamous relationship, in the 2005
here! television movie Third Man Out and its 2006 sequel,
Shock to the System. Both films are adaptations of novels by
author Richard Stevenson. Allen noted that it was the first
gay character he had ever played outside of theater, and
that though his career was "different" since coming out, he
finds it "more interesting and fun for me than it has ever
been."
Controversy surrounded Allen's casting as real-life
Christian missionary Nate Saint in the 2006 docudrama film
End of the Spear, as some conservative Christians lashed out
at producers for putting an openly-gay man in the role. |
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Other Information |
Only signed on for the "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" (1993)
pilot to earn money for college. He did not think the series
would be picked up and thought that it would pay for his
college tuition. The series ran for 6 years.
Travels to Costa Rica are featured in the February 2004
issue of "The Out Traveler" magazine.
One of the co-founders of The Creative Outlet theater
company in 1995, and has appeared in several theater
productions during the summer breaks.
One of the co-founders of a production company called
Mythgarden, which he formed with producer Christopher
Racster and actor Robert Gant ("Queer as Folk" (2000)).
Has been featured on the cover of "The Advocate" three
times: October 9, 2001, November 25, 2003, and August 30,
2005.
He donated many items to Rocky Stone to be given to less
fortunate kids as part of the Toy Mountain Campaign.
As of 2006, he has a position on the Honorary Board of
Directors for The Matthew Shepard Foundation. On July 22,
2006, he joined Shepard's mother Judy and about 800 other
people in a peaceful demonstration outside the Colorado
Springs, Colorado, headquarters of Focus on the Family, a
Christian organization.
As a boy, he played the autistic character Tommy Westfall on
the TV series "St. Elsewhere" (1982). At first a minor
character, Tommy took on great significance in the final
episode when the entire series was revealed to have taken
place inside his head. This has given rise to a fan theory
known as the "Tommy Westphall Universe Hypothesis," which
states that numerous shows that are connected to St.
Elsewhere through character crossovers or dialog references
have also taken place in Tommy's mind. For instance, the
show had a crossover with "Cheers" (1982), and several
characters from "St. Elsewhere" were featured in "Homicide:
Life on the Street" (1993). From those links, the program
can be linked to at least 280 other non-animated shows,
ranging from "I Love Lucy" (1951) to "CSI: NY" (2004) (as of
2007). |
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since October 25, 2007