Nicholas Alexander Chavez (born September 6, 1999) is an American actor. He is recognized for playing Spencer Cassadine on the ABC soap opera General Hospital from 2021 to 2024, a role which won him the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Performer in a Drama Series. He portrayed Lyle Menendez in the crime drama series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story (2024).
Early life and education
Chavez was born in Houston, Texas. He has three younger half-siblings. He lived in Sugar Land, Texas before his family relocated to Denver, Colorado. His parents divorced when he was five and he split his time between his mother's home in Denver and his father's hometown of Arvada, Colorado. As a kid, Chavez spent a lot of time outdoors, snowboarding, hiking and mountain biking. He described himself as a "precocious kid." At an early age, Chavez developed a bug for performing, including recreating the blessing of the Eucharist which he saw at Mass on Sundays. He was also a member of the Colorado Children's Chorale and performed at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House and the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.
Chavez attended East High School where he played football and joined the speech and debate team headed by his mentor, Matt Murphy. When Murphy took over the drama department a year later, he recruited Chavez, then a junior, to play Atticus Finch in the school's production of To Kill a Mockingbird. Chavez quit football to focus on the play. As a senior, Chavez began studying at Visionbox Studio Theater under Jennifer McCray Rincón. While he couldn't afford to pay her, Chavez assisted around the theatre while Rincón helped him prepare for college auditions. Chavez applied to several top American drama programs including Rutgers University, Carnegie Mellon University, New York University and the Juilliard School. With the exception of Juilliard, Chavez was accepted to all of the schools. Chavez attended the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers.[6] After two years, Chavez took a leave of absence from Rutgers and relocated to Los Angeles to pursue acting full time. However, he was forced to go back to Vero Beach, Florida with his father when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020. Chavez worked a few odd jobs, including at a car dealership, while he submitted self-tape auditions.
Career
On July 1, 2021, Chavez made his television debut as Spencer Cassadine on General Hospital. Chavez signed a three-year deal. Only a few months into his General Hospital tenure, he mourned the loss of his longtime manager, Jenevieve Brewer. He exited the role in January 2024. In 2022, Chavez starred as Jason in the Tubi original film, Crushed.
In 2023, Chavez was cast in the second season of Ryan Murphy's Netflix anthology series, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story (2024). He portrayed Lyle Menendez. In August 2024, it was reported Chavez had also been cast in Murphy's Grotesquerie, a dramatic horror series for FX. In the midst of the premieres ten days apart, it was announced he had signed with Creative Artists Agency for representation.
Filmography
Source: wikipedia
