Deborah Kaye Allen is an American actress, dancer, choreographer, singer-songwriter, director, producer, and a former member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. She has been nominated 20 times for an Emmy Award, two Tony Awards, and has also won a Golden Globe Award. Allen is best known for her work in the musical-drama television series Fame, where she portrayed dance teacher Lydia Grant.
About Debbie Allen in brief
Deborah Kaye Allen is an American actress, dancer, choreographer, singer-songwriter, director, producer, and a former member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. She has been nominated 20 times for an Emmy Award, two Tony Awards, and has also won a Golden Globe Award and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1991. Allen is best known for her work in the musical-drama television series Fame, where she portrayed dance teacher Lydia Grant. In 2001, Allen opened the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in Los Angeles, where she currently teaches young dancers. She also taught choreography to former Los Angeles Lakers dancer-turned-singer, Paula Abdul. Allen began her career appearing on Broadway theatre. In 1976, Allen made her television debut appearing in the CBS sitcom Good Times. The following year, she went to star in the NBC variety show The Next Generations. In 1981, she had the important role of Sarah, the lover of Coalhouse Walker who is trying to defend him in the movie Ragtime.
She returned to acting playing the leading role in theNBC sitcom In the House from 1995 to 1996, and in 2011 began playing Dr. Catherine Avery in the ABC medical drama Grey’s Anatomy also serving as an executive producerdirector. She holds honoris causa Doctorates from Howard University and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She made her Broadway debut in the chorus of Purlie in 1970. She later created the role of Beneatha in the Tony Award-winning musical Raisin, and appeared in Truckload, and Ain’t Misbehavin’ In 1980, she received critical attention for her performance as Anita in the Broadway revival of West Side Story which earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical and won Drama Desk Award. She was selected to appear in the 1979 miniseries Roots: The Next Generation by Alex Haley where she plays the wife of Alex Haley.
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