Background and career
Allison Mack (born July 29, 1982) is an American former actress. She played Chloe Sullivan on the superhero series Smallville (2001–2011) and had a recurring role on the comedy series Wilfred (2012–2014). Mack was a member of NXIVM, a sex-trafficking cult and multi-level marketing company. In 2018, she was arrested by federal authorities on charges of sex trafficking, sex-trafficking conspiracy, and forced labor conspiracy related to her involvement in NXIVM and its subgroup, DOS. Mack pleaded guilty to racketeering and racketeering conspiracy charges and, in 2021, was sentenced to three years in prison. She served 22 months at the Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin, California, and was released in July 2023.
Allison Mack was born on July 29, 1982, in Preetz, West Germany, to American parents Jonathan Mack, an opera singer, and Mindy Mack, a schoolteacher and bookkeeper. She has an older brother. Her parents were in West Germany at the time of her birth because Jonathan was performing there; they lived in West Germany for two years before returning to the United States, settling in Long Beach, California, where Mack was raised.
Mack's first job was for a German chocolate company in a series of print ads and commercials. She went into modeling for a short period and studied at the Young Actors Space in Los Angeles at age seven. Mack's first major television role was in an episode of the WB/CW series 7th Heaven, in which she gained attention playing a teenager who cut herself. In 2000, she co-starred in the short-lived series Opposite Sex. Her film credits include roles in My Horrible Year! (Eric Stoltz's directorial debut), Camp Nowhere, and in the Disney film Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves.
In October 2001, Mack began starring as Chloe Sullivan (an original character created for the show), one of Clark Kent's best friends in the WB/CW television series Smallville. Mack earned several awards and nominations for her portrayal of Chloe, including the Teen Choice Award for Best Sidekick in 2006 and 2007. She appeared as a series regular for nine seasons and returned as an intermittent main cast member in the tenth and final season, including the two-part series finale. From 2003 to 2006, Mack's character appeared in her own miniseries Smallville: Chloe Chronicles and Smallville: Vengeance Chronicles. In 2008, Mack made her directorial debut in Smallville season 8 episode "Power". In 2002, Mack made a couple of appearances along with her Smallville castmate Sam Jones III in R. L. Stine's miniseries The Nightmare Room. In 2006, she voiced Clea, a museum curator, in an episode of The Batman. Adding to her DC Comics resume, she lent her voice for Power Girl in the animated feature Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (2009). Mack was also listed as a member of the Iris Theatre Company.
In March 2012, Mack was cast in a recurring role in the second season of the FX sitcom Wilfred. She played Amanda, the love interest of Elijah Wood's lead character Ryan. Mack returned to Wilfred for one episode of the fourth and final season. In 2014, Mack guest-starred as a policewoman named Hilary in an episode of the Fox thriller The Following. On March 21, 2015, she tweeted that she would be appearing in American Odyssey as Julia, who befriends Suzanne, the daughter of Anna Friel's lead character Sgt. Odelle Ballard.
Mack was a member of NXIVM, an organization founded by cult leader Keith Raniere and headquartered in Albany, New York. Throughout its existence, advocates of NXIVM characterized it as a benign multi-level marketing company selling professional and personal development courses, while critics described it as a cult.
