Karen Allen was inspired to become an actor after seeing Jerzy Grotowski’s Polish Theatre Laboratory in a performance of Apolcalypsis Cum Figuris in 1972. She attended George Washington University and performed in numerous theatre productions with the Washington Theatre Laboratory in Washington DC. She co-produced performances by international theatre companies at the Washington Project for the Arts for four years before moving to New York City to work in the theatre.
In NY she portrayed Helen Keller in William Gibson’s The Monday After the Miracle directed by Arthur Penn at the Actor’s Studio,the Spoleto Festival, the Kennedy Center,and on Broadway. Her performance won a Theatre World Award. Other theatre performances in NY include William Mastrosimones’ Extremities, Strindberg’s Miss Julie, and productions of The Country Girl, The Miracle Worker, and Speaking in Tongues at the Roundabout Theatre, Laura in The Glass Menagerie, and Beautiful Bodies by Laura Cunningham. She has worked at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Longwharf, The Berkshire Theatre Festival, Shakespeare and Co. and the Westport Country Playhouse. Most recently she starred in the US premiere of Norwegian playwright Jon Fosses’ A Summer Day with Rattlestick Theatre at the Cherry Lane in NY.
As a director in the theatre she directed Michael Weller’s Moonchildren and Joan Ackermann’s “The Batting Cage” at Bard College at Simon’s Rock and productions of Moonchildren, Mastrisimone’s Extremities, Terrance McNally’s Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune and John Patrick Shanley’s Outside Mullingar at the Berkshire Theatre Festival. In NY she directed Lucy Thurber’s world premiere of Ashville for Rattlestick Theatre in NY which won an Obie Award. She has taught acting and directing at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in association with NYU, has taught acting at Bard College at Simon’s Rock and is a lifetime member of the Actor’s Studio.
Her films include Animal House, The Wanderers, A Small Circle of Friends, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Shoot the Moon, Cruising, Until September, Starman, Animal Behavior, The Glass Menagerie, Backfire, The End of the Line, Scrooged, The Sandlot, King of the Hill, Falling Sky, The Perfect Storm, The Basket, In the Bedroom, Malcolm X, Poster Boy, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, White Irish Drinkers and Bad Hurt and Joan Anderson’s memoir “A Year By the Sea”. In 2019 Karen starred in Tom Quinn’s Colewell which was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award as was her performance. She has just completed filming A Stage of Twilight which will be released in2022.
In 2016 she wrote and directed her first film, based on Carson McCullers’ short story, A Tree, A Rock, A Cloud. It was shown at over 30 film festivals internationally and won numerous awards.
On television she has been seen in Steinbeck’s East of Eden, as Christa Macauliffe in The Challenger, in Secret Weapon, Voyage, All the Winter’s That Have Been, My Horrible Year, Rapture, November Christmas, Law and Order, Bluebloods and most recently in Things Heard and Seen for Netflix.
Karen studied textile and clothing design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC when she was 17. In 2010 she received an honorary doctorate from FIT and the State University of NY for her design work with her company Karen Allen Fiber Arts in Great Barrington, MA where she presently has a design studio and store that represents dozens of textile and clothing designers who she admires from around the world.
Karen divides her time work as a designer and as an actor and director. She is an active Board member of the Berkshire International Film Festival and the Amazon Conservation Team. She has a 30 year old son, Nicholas, who is a professional chef.