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Dean Winters as Mayhem in an Allstate ad
Screengrab via YouTube

Who is the Mayhem actor in the Allstate commercials and where have you seen him before?

This famous commercial face has made notable appearances in comedies and dramas alike.

Mayhem, we’ve been told by our television screens for over a decade, is to be avoided. It comes in many forms, but mostly it looks a lot like Dean Winters, the actor and stunt performer who’s been representing Allstate in the wildly popular series of ads since 2010. 

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Winters is known for plenty of things, with a list of credits stretching back to 1995. His breakout performance was arguably on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, playing Detective Brian Cassidy during the show’s debut season. After calling it a day in season one, the character made a surprise return at the tail end of season 13, sticking around for varying tenures across the next seven years. 

Other high-profile roles for Winters included a series regular gig on Oz, playing Ryan O’Reily in all 56 brutal episodes of the HBO prison drama, and as Sarah Connor’s ex, Charlie, on the short lived Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Dean Winters as Dennis Duffy, stabbing holes in a wall.
Image via NBC

Meanwhile, Winters really found his footing in the first season of 30 Rock, back when it was still quietly becoming the funniest sitcom of a generation. There, he played series protagonist Liz Lemon’s on-again off-again dirtbag boyfriend, Dennis Duffy, the source of some of the show’s most profound sound bites of wisdom. “Technology is cyclical.” “Let me tell you about 20 year olds: Half of them are 16.” “What was the one mistake those people in Denver made? There was no kid in the balloon.” The series may have ended a decade ago, but it’s hard not to go back for Dennis Duffy. We’ll always come back.


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Author
Image of Tom Meisfjord
Tom Meisfjord
Tom is an entertainment writer with five years of experience in the industry, and thirty more years of experience outside of it. His fields of expertise include superheroes, classic horror, and most franchises with the word "Star" in the title. An occasionally award-winning comedian, he resides in the Pacific Northwest with his dog, a small mutt with impulse control issues.