Dean Winters Biography

Fast Facts

• Graduated from Colorado College with a degree in English
• Brother to Scott Winters, an actor, and Brad Winters, a TV writer and producer, and all three of them worked on "Oz․"
• Suffered from a bacterial infection in 2009 that nearly cost him his life - his heart stopped for two and a half minutes before paramedics revived him
• One of his earliest professional acting jobs was in the TV series "Homicide: Life on the Street․"
• Was a popular bartender in New York with his brother, Scott, and one of their regular customers was "Oz" creator Tom Fontana
• Quote: "[on his role as Mayhem] "I wanted to become an actor so I didn't have to put on a suit and sell insurance․""
• Quote: "When there's not 10 feet of snow on the ground I ride my bike down the streets of New York, and I literally hear two things out of car windows as cabs pass by me: They either yell, 'Hey, dummy,' [his trademark '30 Rock' phrase] or 'Hey, Mayhem․'"
• Best known for his role as Ryan O'Reily in "Oz" and as the character Mayhem in Allstate Insurance's commercial series
• Appeared in the music video "Bonnie and Shyne" by Shyne in 2001