Joan Allen

Biography: Joan Allen is the daughter of Jeff and Dorothy Allen. She has two sisters, Mary and Lynn, and a brother, David. She attended Rochelle Township High School and was voted most likely to succeed. She later attended Eastern Illinois University in Charleston and later Northern Illinois University. Allen, along with Gary Sinise, Laurie Metcalf and John Malkovich, founded Chicago's famed Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where she began her professional career. She also studied theater at Eastern Illinois University. On Broadway, she received a Tony Award for her performance opposite John Malkovich in Burn This (1987) by Lanford Wilson, and was nominated for The Heidi Chronicles (1989). Off-Broadway, she won an Obie for her starring role in The Marriage of Bette & Boo. She reprised her Steppenwolf Theatre role in And A Nightingale Sang, receiving the Clarence Derwent, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Theatre World Awards for her performance. Allen debuted on the big screen with Compromising Positions (1985). Since then she has appeared in several movies opposite big names in Hollywood and has also received critical acclaim for some of her performances. She has also appeared on television, co-starring with Anjelica Huston in the TV miniseries Mists of Avalon, based on the bestselling novel about the women behind King Arthur. She married actor Peter Friedman in 1990 but the couple separated in 2002. Together they have a daughter, Sadie, born in March of 1994. She travels back to her hometown of Rochelle, Illinois every summer to spend time working with aspiring actors and actresses.… Expand