People will remember the name ‘Chad Allen’ from the 1980’s and the 1990’s especially, but his is not a name that rolls off the tongue from any time period exactly. He is a lesser known and moderately famous actor who has had a fruitful career without managing to become too much of a household name. Chad Allen, born in California in 1974, currently resides in New York and Los Angeles.
Allen was born Chad Allen Lazzari on June 5, 1974, in Cerritos, California, and grew up in Artesia. He has a twin sister named Charity and a brother named Steve Lazzari who works for Union Pacific Railroad. Allen is of predominantly Italian origin, with a "dose" of German origin. He was raised in a "strict" Roman Catholic household and regards himself as being a "deeply spiritual person" because of his upbringing.
Interestingly, people will remember the name ‘Chad Allen’ from the 1980’s and the 1990’s especially. He agreed to join the cast of the Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman pilot in order to raise money for college, a familiar narrative for people in that age group. He didn’t think that the series would go on for any longer than that pilot. To his surprise, it went on for six years. Chad made his transition to an adult actor as Matthew Cooper on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
Allen's first television appearance was at age four in a McDonalds commercial. At age six, he landed his first dramatic role in a pilot for a television series, and by the age of eight, he captured the hearts of the viewing public as the autistic Tommy Westphall on the cast of "St. Elsewhere." Allen has guest starred in several television series: Webster, Our House, My Two Dads, Airwolf, Hunter, The Wonder Years, Star Trek The Next Generation, In the Heat of the Night, Highway to Heaven, Simon and Simon.
Chad Allen attends the premiere of "Save Me" during the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.
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Chad Allen's Career and Activism
However, Chad Allen might be more well-known today as a gay actor. In a time period in which gay actors can finally share their personal stories, Chad Allen is going to show up on lists of gay actors, and many people are familiar with his quotes related to gay rights and the portrayal of gay characters. In 1996, at age 21, Allen was outed as gay when tabloid The Globe published photos of him kissing another man, Alex Hannaman, in a hot tub at a party. The photos had been sold to the paper by Allen's then-boyfriend.
Allen has since become an activist for the LGBT community in addition to his continuing acting and producing career. In 2006 Allen appeared on Larry King Live with San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom to represent his viewpoint in a debate over same-sex marriage.
Allen's then real-life partner, actor Jeremy Glazer, was also in the film “Save Me” (2007, trailer below), a film exploring the ex-gay movement; it premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, and Allen was the star, developer and producer of that film. Chad Allen has been in a relationship with his partner Jeremy Glazer since 2005, so his personal life has been relatively stable for a while now.
In 1995, Chad Allen co-founded The Creative Outlet theater company. Starting with Third Man Out (2005), Allen stars as Donald Strachey, a gay private detective in a monogamous relationship, in a series of television movies for the here! network based on novels by Richard Stevenson. The sequel, Shock to the System (2006), was followed by On the Other Hand, Death (2008) and Ice Blues (2008).
Table: Chad Allen's Notable Roles
| Title | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|
| St. Elsewhere | Tommy Westphall | 1983-1988 |
| Our House | David Witherspoon | 1986-1988 |
| My Two Dads | Zach Nichols | 1989-1990 |
| Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman | Matthew Cooper | 1993-1998 |
| Third Man Out | Donald Strachey | 2005 |
From June through August 2008, Allen appeared with Valerie Harper in Looped, a play based on an afternoon looping session with Tallulah Bankhead for the film Die! Die! Starting on September 23, 2008, Allen portrayed the love interest of Dr. A.J. Bottom line is that the script had almost been produced at the studio level and then fell out, because the film But I’m a Cheerleader had come out, and the [Save Me] script was a very over-the-top comedy, a funny, funny script, but not unlike But I’m a Cheerleader.
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For the most part, Chad Allen’s past and present seems to defy the stereotypes about actors in general as well as gay actors. In terms of his family life, it is interesting that Chad Allen was brought up in a dedicated Catholic home. He still regards himself as spiritual. He came out publicly in the October 2001 issue of The Advocate, when he also acknowledged his drug and alcohol addictions. He was raised within a strict Roman Catholic household and regards himself as a deeply spiritual person because of his upbringing.
Chad Allen’s career didn’t end then. He has had a large number of minor or guest roles in television series. His resume almost reads like a list of the most popular television shows of the last thirty years or so.
Six years ago, Allen told his fans via a Youtube video that he would be retiring. Following the farewell was a nice appreciation message to everyone who supported him during his acting days and funded the AIDS initiative.
Last year, he showcased and celebrated the arrival of his certificate from Antioch University, New England, after earning a degree in clinical psychology. Allen graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in June 2015 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. He graduated from the Psy.D.
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