Whether you have seen him on Netflix or your TikTok feed, actor Nicholas Alexander Chavez has quickly taken over our screens. His breakthrough role as Lyle Menendez in Netflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story put him on the map, followed by his role as Father Charlie, otherwise known as “Hot Priest,” in FX’s new horror series, Grotesquerie. What followed was a hailstorm of thirst traps going viral on TikTok. But where did Chavez come from and how did he become Ryan Murphy’s new muse?
Chavez in His Early Days
The 25-year-old actor was born in Houston, Texas before relocating with his family to Colorado. As a kid, Chavez immediately had a bug for acting and performance. This included recreating the Eucharist which he saw at Mass on Sundays — an interesting foreshadowing to his priestly role in Grotesquerie. Chavez played a prominent role in his high school’s football team and the school’s drama department. When college came around, he was accepted into a few of the top American drama schools and chose to attend Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. This attendance was brief, as he made the big move to Los Angeles to pursue his acting career full-time. Fortunately for the young actor, the risk was ultimately worth it.
Chavez landed his first professional role as Spencer Cassadine, grandson of Genie Francis’ Laura, in ABC’s General Hospital. He played a spoiled son with father issues (another odd foreshadowing) from 2021 until 2024. This three-year commitment earned him a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama in 2022.
Present-Day Breakthrough Success
In 2023, Chavez was cast in Ryan Murphy’s anthology series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story on Netflix as Lyle Menendez. Despite the series’ mainstream success, Murphy’s exploitative romanticization of the two brothers and inaccurate depiction of abuse has drawn criticism from viewers, and even the Menendez brothers themselves. Nevertheless, Chavez’s powerful portrayal of Lyle Menendez instantly won the admiration of fans. His significantly good looks undoubtedly also played a role in this admiration. Clips from the series were transformed into a thirst trap TikTok edit made by @aurelis:
The TikTok has become a running joke as “motivation” for students or people “pregaming” for work. All this goes to show the power of TikTok to transform a new star into an overnight sensation.
In 2024, Murphy cast Chavez in Grotesquerie, a dramatic horror series for FX as Father Henry, an eccentric priest with some notably raunchy scenes. As you can imagine, the TikTok edits ran wild. Now that both of these series premiered only 10 days apart, Chavez has told sources how eager he is to get back to work.
“My life feels whole and complete between the words action and cut,” he said. “I live for those moments. I think that is the purpose of my entire existence. Nothing brings me more satisfaction and joy as a human being than the craft of acting. I can’t wait to see what the future holds.”
Nothing brings me more satisfaction and joy as a human being than the craft of acting.”
Nicholas Chavez
Considering his comparatively new yet successful filmography, Chavez has barely scratched the surface of his career. So do not fear, new Nicholas Chavez stans, more thirst trap material is undoubtedly coming our way.
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