DEBBIE ALLEN Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

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DEBBIE ALLEN

Name: Debbie Allen                                                               
Birth name: Deborrah Kaye Allen                                                   
Born: 16 January 1950 Dallas, Texas, United States                               
                                                                                 
Debbie Allen (born Deborrah Kaye Allen on January 16, 1950 in Houston, Texas) is 
an American actress, choreographer, television director, television producer,     
and a member of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. She is     
best known for her role as Lydia Grant in the hit television series, Fame. Her   
mother, Vivia Allen, moved her children away from the USA and down to Mexico to   
escape prejudice.                                                                 
                                                                                 
Allen earned a B.A. degree in classical Greek literature, speech, and theater     
from Howard University and holds honorary doctorates from both her alma mater     
and the North Carolina School for the Arts. She currently teaches young dancers   
at her Debbie Allen Dance Academy. She also taught choreography to former L.A.   
Laker dancer-turned singer, Paula Abdul. Her daughter, Vivian Nixon, played       
Kalimba in the Broadway production of Hot Feet. She graduated from Jack Yates     
Senior high school 1967.                                                         
                                                                                 
She is the sister of Phylicia Rashād, and is married to former NBA player Norm   
Nixon. She and Nixon have two children, Vivian (born 1984) and Norm Jr (born     
1987). She was once married to Winnefred Wilford. She got divorced in 1983       
because of the pressures of their careers.