Childhood & Early Life
Chad L. Coleman was born on September 6, 1974, in Richmond, Virginia, US. When he was 11 months old, Coleman, his two older sisters, and two older brothers started living in a foster home in Richmond, Virginia. Later, at the age of 14, he started living with his grandmother.
He took part in track and field during his youth, but a leg injury later led him to turn his focus to drama lessons. He obtained a scholarship and enrolled at the ‘Virginia Commonwealth University.’
However, he left the university after attending his freshman year, to serve the ‘United States Army.’ He worked as a video cameraman during his stint in the ‘United States Army’ from 1995 to 1999.
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Career
Coleman started his on-screen career with bit roles. Some of his initial features include series such as ‘Here and Now’ (1992), ‘Law & Order’ (1994, 1995) and ‘New York Undercover’ (1994, 1996). He also played O.J. Simpson in the ‘TNT’ TV movie ‘Monday Night Mayhem’ (2002).
Meanwhile, he started featuring in films such as ‘New York Cop’ (1993) and ‘Speed of Life’ (1998). He starred as ‘Joe Banks’ in the 2001-released short film ‘The Gilded Six Bits.’
He continued to feature in bit roles in popular TV series such as ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’ (2003) and ‘Guiding Light’ (2003). In 2004, Coleman earned the guest role of ‘Dennis "Cutty" Wise,’ a reformed gang enforcerturned-youth boxing instructor, in the third season of the ‘HBO’ crime-drama series ‘The Wire.’ The character of ‘Dennis’ first appeared in the 2004-aired episode ‘Time After Time’ and became part of the main cast in the fourth season of the series. He guest-featured again the show’s fifth season. Coleman featured in 20 episodes of the series, till 2008.
The 2004-released film ‘Brother to Brother,’ which premiered at that year’s ‘Sundance Film Festival,’ featured him in the role of ‘El.’ The following year, he played ‘Clyde’ in the short video film ‘Carlito's Way: Rise to Power.’
In 2009, he featured in a revival of the play ‘Joe Turner's Come and Gone’ by August Wilson on ‘Broadway’ and also starred in the Norwegian series ‘Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion?’ The latter aired on Norwegian TV during November–December 2011.
He starred as ‘Gary Miller’ in the ‘Fox’-aired sitcom ‘I Hate My Teenage Daughter’ between 2010 and 2013. Meanwhile, in 2011, he appeared in two blockbuster hit films: ‘The Green Hornet’ and ‘Horrible Bosses.’ Moving on, he featured in many short films, such as ‘Habeas Corpus’ (2013) and ‘Making Lemonade’ (2018).
He played the voice role of ‘Manny’ in the animated post-apocalyptic science-fiction web series ‘Electric City.’ The series was originally released through ‘Yahoo! Screen’ on July 17, 2012.
His next notable TV role was that of ‘Tyreese’ in the ‘AMC’ post-apocalyptic horror series ‘The Walking Dead.’ He first appeared in the December 2, 2012-aired eighth episode of the third season, ‘Made to Suffer,’ which was the mid-season finale. Initially a recurring character, Coleman eventually became part of main cast of the series from its fourth season and remained so in its fifth season, too, until his character was “killed” in the mid-season premiere. The thirteenth episode of the fifth season of the series, titled ‘Forget,’ marked Coleman‘s last appearance as the character.
In 2015, he developed a PSA with the non-profit organization ‘Living Advantage.’ His work focused on the ways in which people could help foster children apart from adopting them.
He presently features in the recurring role of ‘Col. Frederick Lucius Johnson’ in the science-fiction series ‘The Expanse,’ which originally released on ‘Syfy’ on December 14, 2015. The fourth season of the series is set to release on ‘Amazon Prime Video’ on December 13, 2019.
He played ‘Mingo’ in the ‘History Channel’-aired 2016 miniseries ‘Roots.’ The same year, he featured in the superhero series ‘Arrow’ and the horror web series ‘Freakish.’ He has also guest-starred in series such as ‘In Plain Sight’ (2010), ‘Lie to Me’ (2010), and ‘It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ (2010–2017).
Since 2017, he plays the recurring role of ‘Klyden’ in the science-fiction comedy–drama ‘The Orville.’ The show premiered on ‘Fox’ on September 10 that year.
Over the years, he has lent his voice to many video games, such as ‘The Warriors’ (2005), ‘Bully’ (2006), ‘Left 4 Dead 2’ (2009), and ‘Resident Evil 6’ (2013).
He has worked as an associate producer for the 2018 movie ‘Last Life.’
He will be seen as ‘Osei’ in the forthcoming graphic novel series ‘Treadwater.’ He will also be contributing as its executive producer.
