Appearances

Title	Role	Year	Approx. Age
End of the Spear	Steve Saint as an adult	2006	32
The Case of the Silk King	unknown	1992	18
Camp Cucamonga	Frankie Calloway	1990	16
Straight Up	Ben	1988	14
TerrorVision	unknown	1986	12
The Real Chad Allen / The Real Chris Young	Themselves	1986	12
TerrorVision Blu-Ray	Sherman Putterman	1986	12
Help Wanted: Kids	Coop	1986	12

Allen was born Chad Allen Lazzari in Cerritos, California, and grew up in Artesia. He has a twin sister named Charity. Allen is of predominantly Italian origin, with a "dose" of German origin. He was raised within a "strict" Roman Catholic household and regards himself as being a "deeply spiritual person" because of his upbringing. Allen attended St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, California.

Allen guest-starred on several prime time series including an early episode of Airwolf for which he was nominated as 'Best Young Actor: Guest in a Series' at the 6th Youth in Film Awards.

In St. Elsewhere he played autistic child Tommy Westphall. 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".

In 1983, he appeared on Cutter to Houston, playing "a kid who got hurt and had to be given mouth-to-mouth and carried to the waiting chopper by Dr. Hal Wexler (Alec Baldwin)". "I thought it was the greatest job I had ever gotten," he later stated: "I don't remember a time when I didn't know I was gay. I may not have known what to call it, and for a long time, I probably wouldn't have even associated it with sexual attraction. But, I knew something about me was different. I have been acting since I was a child. On one of my very first jobs I was playing a sick kid on some bad TV show and Alec Baldwin was giving me mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Alec Baldwin! I couldn't wait to get to work. I would sit and stare at him all day long. I couldn't stand not to be around him. I think I was eight years old at the time."

Allen's first regular role was as David Witherspoon on Our House (1986?88). In 1989-90, he had a recurring role as Zach in My Two Dads. Allen's next contract role was Matthew Cooper in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman alongside Jane Seymour (1993?98). Allen 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.

In 1996, at age 21, Allen was outed as gay when the US tabloid The Globe published photos of him kissing another man 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. Allen has been featured in The Advocate magazine multiple times and has appeared on three of its covers.

After the release of End of the Spear (2005), Chad Allen came out as being homosexual. This outraged a lot of people who saw this movie, who were mostly Fundementalist Christians. As a result, this movie has become a cult favorite.