Debbie Allen: From Segregated Beginnings to Choreographic and Directing Fame

Debbie Allen's journey is a testament to her resilience, talent, and commitment to uplifting the next generation of artists. From facing segregation in her youth to becoming a celebrated choreographer, dancer, actress, producer, and director, Allen's story is one of breaking barriers and achieving excellence. Her educational background, coupled with her experiences, shaped her into the multifaceted artist she is today.

Early Life and Overcoming Segregation

Deborrah Kaye Allen was born on January 16, 1950, in Houston, Texas, to orthodontist Andrew Arthur Allen and artist, poet, playwright, scholar, and publisher, Vivian (née Ayers) Allen. Allen's mother, Vivian Allen, had had enough of segregated Texas in the 1950s. We were living in Texas at a time when segregation was the way of life. There were so many barriers for us as children and barriers for my mother as an artist. We couldn't go to restaurants. We could go to the big amusement park only one day a year, on June 19th. My mother got tired of that, so she packed us up and we moved to Mexico. That early example of creative problem-solving ended up serving Allen well in her career as a choreographer, dancer, actress, producer and director.

At the age of twelve, Debbie Allen auditioned at the Houston Ballet Academy but was initially denied admission. After another chance, she was admitted a year later by a Russian instructor who accidentally saw her perform in a show. Once recruiters from the academy became aware of the situation, they allowed her to stay because they recognized her talent. Her experience at the Houston Ballet Academy is not the only time Allen was refused. When she was sixteen, she had a successful audition for the North Carolina School of the Arts and was given an opportunity to demonstrate dance techniques to other prospective students applying to the institution. Later, however, her application was rejected because her body was "unsuited" for ballet - a criticism often used to discourage Black dancers.

Education at Howard University

Allen's first love was dance, but that soon blossomed into a love of theater, which she studied at Howard University. She went to Howard University [in Washington, D.C.]. She packed a van and drove up to New York. I wanted to dance. I wanted to be in the theater, I wanted to be in a company. I had trained at Howard University as an actress; I majored in theater arts. I also trained as a director and studied lighting and set design.

Allen entered Howard University, and graduated cum laude from the institution in 1971, with a degree in drama. Debbie Allen, a B.F.A. graduate of Howard University in Theater and Classical Greek Studies. If you're going to be a director, take some acting classes so you know what you're asking people to do. I cut my teeth directing at Howard University and was privileged to train with Uta Hagen in New York as a young woman.

Read also: Transforming Lives Through Dance

Early Career and Broadway Debut

After graduation, she headed to New York City, making her Broadway debut in 1970. Allen had her Broadway debut in the chorus of Purlie in 1970. She later created the role of Beneatha in the Tony Award-winning musical Raisin (1973), and appeared in Truckload, and Ain't Misbehavin'. By 1980 she'd earned the first of two Tony nominations.

In 1976, Allen made her television debut appearing in the CBS sitcom Good Times in a memorable 2-part episode titled "J.J.'s Fiancée" as J.J.'s drug-addicted fiancée, Diana. The following year, she went to star in the NBC variety show 3 Girls 3. Allen later was selected to appear in the 1979 miniseries Roots: The Next Generations by Alex Haley where she plays the wife of Haley. Also, that year, she made her big screen debut appearing in a supporting role in the comedy film The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh.

Fame and Transition to Directing and Choreography

A small but key role as Lydia Grant in the 1980 movie Fame led to Allen being cast in the same part in the television adaptation. In the Fame series, which ran from 1982 to '87, Allen also put her leadership skills to work as choreographer and then director. After Fame, Allen focused on working off-camera and as a choreographer.

They said, "Would you come play the dance teacher in the television series? The show's not going to be about your character - it's going to be about the kids." I said, "I would love to - if you let me do the choreography." They said, "Oh, you can have the choreography," but they paid me almost no money to do it. My agent said, "Why are you going to do that?" I said, "'Cause that's what I really love. If I can do that, I'll do the show."

The progression from choreography to directing was natural, because I really was in charge of shooting those production numbers. Sometimes the directors would go home because they didn't know how to shoot dance. She choreographed the Academy Awards for ten years, six of which were consecutive.

A Different World and Impact on HBCU Enrollment

Then you became a producer and director on A Different World, a spinoff of The Cosby Show. How did that come about? By then I was directing Quantum Leap - and I had just been invited by Gary David Goldberg to become one of the main directors on Family Ties - when I got a call that there were problems on A Different World [the series starring Lisa Bonet and set at Hillman College, a fictional Historically Black College].

I went in and rustled up the writing team and shook up the acting, added people, and got them talking to one another, because that's what I had learned from Gary David Goldberg [creator of Family Ties]. The genius of his show was they would have a read through and open the floor and let the actors say how they felt. I was trying to find that commonality. I freed the writers, freed the actors, got in a lot of trouble - I was always called to what I called the principal's office, but together we made A Different World relevant.

A Different World tripled enrollment at Historically Black Colleges. It was like I had found lightning in a bottle twice. Fame created performing arts schools all over the world; A Different World tripled enrollment at HBCUs. That's quite a success story. Forget ratings - that is something that really matters.

Debbie Allen Dance Academy and Philanthropic Work

Allen and her husband, two-time NBA All-Star Norm Nixon, founded the Debbie Allen Dance Academy (DADA) in 2000 to serve the youth of Los Angeles. In 2001, Allen opened the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in Los Angeles, California. The nonprofit school offers a comprehensive dance curriculum for students ranging in age from 4 to 18, regardless of financial status. After a decade of support from Wallis Annenberg and Berry Gordy, in 2017 Shonda Rhimes gifted a 24,000 square-foot warehouse to DADA. With that gift, The Rhimes Performing Arts Center came into existence, housing DADA and the Debbie Allen Middle School.

Directing Career and Grey's Anatomy

Allen later began working as director and producer, most notably producing and directing 83 of 144 episodes of the NBC comedy series A Different World (1988-1993). In 2000s and 2010s, Allen directed television shows, including 44 episodes of All of Us, as well as Girlfriends, Everybody Hates Chris, How to Get Away with Murder, Empire, Scandal, and Jane the Virgin.

Grey's Anatomy is amazing. It was traumatic at first, because even if you're experienced - and I consider myself very experienced - you're still the new kid. But if you really can communicate as a director, that is the most important skill. And I think I brought an energy to the floor that might have been missing. There are always challenges on Grey's Anatomy - big cast, groundbreaking medicine - but I keep everyone in good spirits. She currently serves as Executive Producing Director of Grey’s Anatomy, where she recurs as Dr. Catherine Fox.

Awards and Recognition

Allen's accomplishments in television - along with her commitment to uplifting the next generation of artists, especially marginalized youth - earned her the Television Academy's Governors Award in 2021. In 2022, she was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.

Allen has been nominated for twenty-one Emmys. Of her five Emmy wins, four were for choreography: in 1982 and 1983 for Fame, in 1991 for Motown 30: What's Goin' On! and in 2021 for Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square; for the Parton film, she also won an Emmy as an executive producer. Ms. Allen received the Golden Globe for her role as Lydia Grant in the 1980s hit series Fame, the Drama Desk Award for her portrayal of Anita in West Side Story, and is a four-time Emmy Award winner in Choreography for Fame (twice), The Motown 25th, and Christmas on the Square. She has also received the Emmy Award for Outstanding Movie Made for Television as Executive Producer of Christmas on the Square, and the Governors Award at the 73rd Emmys. Awarded ten Image Awards as director, actress, choreographer and producer for Fame, A Different World, Motown 25th, The Academy Awards, The Debbie Allen Special, and Amistad.

She also earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Women in Radio and Television.

Advice for Aspiring Directors and Choreographers

Go somewhere and really train. Master one thing and see how it can open the path to so many other things. I trained as a dancer, and I was a choreographer before I became a director. My sensibility about movement and where the eye goes and moving the camera was developed as a choreographer first, but that translates beautifully into the language of directing.

Personal Life

Allen is married to former NBA player Norm Nixon; the couple have three children: dancer Vivian Nichole Nixon (who played Kalimba in the Broadway production of Hot Feet), basketball player Norman Ellard Nixon Jr. (Wofford College and Southern University), and DeVaughn Nixon. She is the sister of actress/director/singer Phylicia Rashad (she guest starred in an episode of The Cosby Show and Rashad in an episode of In the House and also Grey's Anatomy).

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