If you’ve tuned into television, you’re likely acquainted with the Allstate Mayhem commercials. These ads have run for over ten years, featuring Dean Winters as the personification of mayhem, wreaking havoc in various hilarious forms. From playing a distracted teenager who bumps into your car to a raccoon making havoc in your attic, these adverts creatively showcase life’s unexpected events that are beyond your control. 

It’s unusual for a commercial character to have such longevity, but Mayhem has certainly made its mark. Over 100 of these commercials have graced our screens, with Winters showcasing his sharp wit in the most absurd situations. If you think Winters seems recognizable, you’re right: alongside his commercial work, he’s featured in numerous films and TV series, including “John Wick,” “30 Rock,” and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” 

Though not an A-list celebrity, Winters has carved out a noteworthy Hollywood career, one many aspiring actors would envy. Behind the well-loved commercials and his roles in TV and film lies Winters’ poignant personal journey, marked by trials that outshine any fictional chaos featured in an Allstate ad. 

Getting noticed in the acting world is tough. Many actors, like Winters, experience a rocky start. In an interview with Backstage, Winters recounted a heated moment during an audition when he was blatantly ignored by the director, who was preoccupied with his phone and a sandwich. Winters admitted to throwing the script at the director in frustration and storming out of the audition.

Winters caught a break in the 1990s with a role as Ryan O’Reily on “Oz,” a highly regarded HBO series. His stint on “Oz” launched him into various opportunities, proving that even an angry script toss can’t derail a career. But even with notable roles, the hustle never ends. As Winters told Backstage, even after years in the industry, actors may still find themselves auditioning. “If you would’ve asked me 26 years ago when I started if I’d still be auditioning, I’d be like, ‘Hell, no.’ But of course I am.”

Beyond “Oz,” Winters appeared in dramatic roles on shows like “NYPD Blue,” “Sex and the City,” and “CSI: Miami.” Although this work showcased his dramatic skills, it made it harder for some to see his comedic talent, which later shone in the Mayhem commercials. Fortunately, casting directors recognized his potential, landing him the role of Dennis, Liz Lemon’s (Tina Fey) quirky ex-boyfriend on “30 Rock,” where he embraced humor to great effect.

In his chat with Backstage, Winters revealed that he initially walked out of his “30 Rock” audition: “I go into the room, I see 20 guys. I recognized all of them; they were all comics. They were famous guys. I was a drama guy. I’m like, What am I doing here? I signed the list, I sat down, looked around the room, and I’m like, I don’t have a shot in hell. I got up and I left.” Winters walked to Central Park and got himself a beer. He was ready to get on with his day when he got a call from his agent’s assistant, who told him that if he didn’t at least audition for this job that they were going to drop him as a client.

The way Winters tells it, the whole thing worked out for the best, because the walk back to Rockefeller Center gave him time to figure out how he was going to approach the audition. “The way that I played it apparently was different from the other 20 guys that had gone in,” he explained. “The way I played it was exactly how they wanted it, which was: This guy believed in everything that he said, no matter how audacious it was, and [he said it] with a straight face.” It became a role he’d continue to play across all seven seasons of “30 Rock,” appearing in a total of 15 episodes.

Self-doubt and bad auditions are par for the course for any actor, but Dean Winters experienced something in 2009 that no one should ever have to go through. It threatened not only to derail his entire acting career but end his life. As a matter of fact, his life did end — albeit only for a few minutes.

One day in June 2009, Winters woke up suffering from a high fever. Despite hoping it would go away on its own, it appeared to get worse, and he’d later realize he had contracted a bacterial infection. He made the trip to his doctor’s office but collapsed just outside of it: He had gone septic and had to be rushed to the hospital. On the ride over, his heart stopped, and as he told Us Weekly years after the fact, “I was dead in the back of an ambulance, and the great doctors at Lenox Hill Hospital brought me back to life after around four-and-a-half minutes.”

Apparently, he wasn’t told immediately that he had died. That information came several months after the fact, but it was probably for the best given that Winters still had a long road to recovery. Following the incident, he spent three more weeks in intensive care. Winters would later tell the Sioux City Journal that someone told him he was “never going to walk again.” It was only the beginning of what would become an arduous healthcare journey.

Following his stint in the ICU, Dean Winters was able to go back home to recover. After a month recuperating, he developed gangrene, a medical condition in which bodily tissue begins to die and can come about after a severe infection, like the one Winters had. Gangrene restricts blood flow to various parts of the body and can be fatal if it isn’t treated soon enough. Winters had to go back to the hospital, and over the course of the next year, he underwent 18 operations, including amputations for two of his toes as well as part of one thumb. Other procedures included skin grafts and reconstruction on his right hand.

It was an incredibly tumultuous time, and one in which Winters couldn’t really act. It even got to a point where he wondered if he’d be able to continue his passion, but he found hope, as he told the Sioux City Journal. “I was feeling sorry for myself — I had lost toes and half a thumb and the tip of my nose fell off — and this nurse took me to the children’s burn unit,” he explained. “I saw these eight kids with prosthetic legs playing soccer and I thought, ‘That’s it.’ That’s the moment when I turned everything around and decided to learn how to walk again.” That’s precisely what Winters did, and he managed to get his career back on track.

Dean Winters has also spoken with Page Six about his health journey. In a candid interview, the actor told the tabloid that he struggles with neuropathy following his many surgeries. It’s a condition that can sometimes be caused by severe infections in which nerve damage makes it difficult to feel things properly, especially in the hands and feet. There might be tingling sensations or pain in certain situations, and for Winters, it’s a daily struggle — the actor’s neuropathy is particularly bad, he’s revealed.

“I haven’t taken a step since 2009 without being in pain,” the actor explained. “I’ve got neuropathy on, you know, on a whole different level where I can’t feel my hands and my feet. But if I stepped on a pebble, it’s like I go through the roof.” While treatments exist for neuropathy, it sounds like Winters still has to struggle every day just to do the most basic of tasks. It makes everyday life hard, but he refuses to let it get him down. “I’ve been sucking it up because, you know, the alternative is not a place where I want to be,” he told Page Six.

Considering Dean Winters went through numerous surgeries and hospitalizations, it’s understandable that his career had to take a back seat while he recovered. One job we know he missed out on is the short-lived ABC drama series “Happy Town.” The show’s about a small town that endured a massive tragedy where several people went missing. Some search for answers while others want to put the unpleasantness behind them, but it doesn’t take long until more unusual circumstances occur, forcing everyone to consider whether there are mystical forces at play.

Dean Winters was originally cast as John Haplin, a father whose daughter is one of the missing townsfolk and is still holding out hope she can be found. He filmed the pilot and can be seen alongside the cast in early promo images, but he was unavailable when ABC picked it up for series. Winters was replaced with Steven Weber, who’s probably best known for starring in “Wings,” one of many TV shows that’s far better than you remember. “Happy Town” received mixed reviews and it didn’t even get a chance to air its full first season before getting the chop. ABC canceled the show after six of its eight episodes, with the final two eventually being released on the network’s website.

Despite having to back out of “Happy Town,” Dean Winters was able to bounce back relatively quickly. Around the time all of his procedures happened, he joked to Page Six, “People in Los Angeles think I’m dead.” Fortunately, he had already worked in the industry for over a decade at this point. Even with a hiatus, he’d soon realize that he had some true friends in Tinseltown who certainly hadn’t forgotten about him.

Winters told the Sioux City Journal that one of the first people to reach out to him following his medical emergency was Tina Fey, who insisted that whenever he was ready, they would put Dennis back in “30 Rock.” They were even willing to work around his limited capabilities after his surgeries. “They put work gloves on my hands because both of them had been cut open,” Winters recalled. “They put me in a cast because they had cut off my baby toe and she leaned me up against a wall and I did a scene like that. That was my first day back.”

Denis Leary also offered him work, putting his character, Johnny Gavin, in the first episode of “Rescue Me” Season 7 after he had been absent since Season 5. These gigs reminded Hollywood that Winters was alive and well and work flowed in more regularly, including a small part in 2014’s “John Wick.” His reputation preceded him with that one, as he told Esquire, “I didn’t have a good audition, but the directors, Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, were big ‘Oz’ fans so they were like, ‘When you walked in the room you had the job.'” 

Dean Winters is living proof that commercials can actually give you a great platform as an actor. Acting in ads is often seen as the bottom rung on the Hollywood ladder, with a lot of people viewing commercials as a starting place for kids taking their first steps or a dumping ground for those who lack the talent to make it in television or film. This is how Winters felt about commercial acting jobs when he was first approached about the Allstate Mayhem ads.

In a 2015 chat with HuffPost, Winters revealed how he thought he was too good to be a commercial actor. “When they offered me the commercial, I said no,” he said. “My smartass remark was that I became an actor so I wouldn’t have to put on a suit and sell insurance. And then my agent slapped me around and said, ‘Come on, get real.'” That initial “no” came prior to his hospitalizations. Allstate must’ve known there was something special about Winters because even after all he had been through, they came back and offered him the part once he was feeling better.

He may have been hesitant about selling insurance at first, but he told the Sioux City Journal he owes Allstate everything now: “They came to me knowing I was in the gutter and they breathed new life in me and helped restore confidence in myself.” Allstate has made different types of ads over the years, including a 2023 commercial featuring an annoying podcast expert. But Mayhem continues to be Allstate’s bread and butter, with Winters returning for new spots all the time, like a 2025 commercial that sees him as an annoying baseball dad who throws a bat right into a car’s windshield.

Against the odds, Dean Winters got his career back on track following his near-death experience, but the whole ordeal has slowed him down a bit. He told the Sioux City Journal that he can no longer box despite loving it prior to his medical emergency. He also has to communicate with producers about what he’s able to actually perform. “When we did ‘Oz,’ I never said no to anything,” he said. “Now, I can’t walk without shoes on. I can’t walk barefoot.”

But if there’s any silver lining to take away from Winters’ brush with death it’s that it made him appreciate the business more. He has his share of audition horror stories and has spoken about failing to land parts in great movies like “Michael Clayton” and “Winter’s Bone.” Yet, after his surgeries, he’s more optimistic about whatever comes his way: “Right before I got hurt, I was in a negative place about the business. I wasn’t appreciating it for what it is. And now, I really appreciate the community, the actors, the writers and producers.”

Winters still regularly gets acting work, even outside of his Allstate Mayhem gigs. He was part of another Tina Fey project, playing Nick in “Girls5Eva” between 2021 and 2024, and he recently got to work with Spike Lee, playing a detective in his 2025 neo-noir crime thriller “Highest 2 Lowest.” Winters may have had a long journey to recovery, but his success after is the kind of arc one would expect to find in a Hollywood blockbuster.