Do we like Chad L. Coleman?
Our score: 7 out of 10. Decent record and real community work, held back a notch by one public blow-up in 2015 and a thin record on his wider views.
Coleman grew up in Richmond, Virginia, the youngest of five kids who entered foster care after a house fire. A couple named George and Lottie Byrd took all five in, and he has said they saved the family. He credits his teachers for pushing him, and got his first taste of acting in a third-grade Thanksgiving play.
He started acting in 1989, did Law & Order and a soap, then landed the role most people know him for: Dennis “Cutty” Wise, the reformed gangster in HBO's The Wire. He made his Broadway debut in 2009 in an August Wilson revival, and later became a fan favourite as Tyreese in The Walking Dead.
The one proper stoush is the May 2015 subway meltdown. A video showed him shouting, profanity and all, on a New York train, including the line “Where's the humanitarian in you?” He told TMZ he had built-up frustration over the Baltimore unrest and that he erupted after hearing a racial slur aimed at him. He said he regretted it and apologised to his co-stars and family.
On the harm check, the record is thin but clean. We found nothing from him on trans people, women, vaccines or the climate that does harm, and no lawsuits or court cases against him. On The Orville he played Klyden in a storyline about a parent who disowns their child, and he said the LGBTQ+ response had been “nothing but powerful, wonderful feedback.”
Lately he's been in Superman & Lois as the villain Bruno Mannheim, and he talked up a film called A Christmas Prayer on local TV. Nothing new has turned up on him in recent months, and we found no sign he keeps company with the grievance-peddlers.
The good stuff is the real stuff. He's the celebrity spokesperson for Date With Dad, a Richmond dads-and-daughters event, and has stuck around the city jail dance to talk with incarcerated fathers. He has also mentored young filmmakers with a Los Angeles charity and spoken up for foster youth.