Actor, singer, teacher, producer, stage director, Allen founded the Icicle Creek New Play Festival (ICNPF) in 2007. During his eleven-year tenure as its Producing Artistic Director, he instituted a collaboration with Seattle’s ACT Theatre (2008), and a 2012 merger with Icicle Creek Center for the Arts [www.icicle.org].
​     Allen directed Sea Marks in 2019, and Annapurna in 2018, both to rave reviews, at Key City Public Theatre in Port Townsend, WA. He directed the first Off-Broadway/NYC revival of Sea Marks (in 2003); the very first Seattle area production of The Exonerated (2007); Vesta (2008; starring Megan Cole, which he also produced); readings of Dov and Ali by Anna Ziegler (2007) and Him by Daisy Foote (2009); Shiny Pair of Complications (2010, Bit Parts Festival at Freehold).  He co-founded The People's Theatre of Frankford in 1984. Allen taught acting at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, and he coaches acting privately.
     Allen has been acting professionally for 50 years-- on Broadway and in the professional theater-- working alongside such notables as Andrew Lloyd-Webber, Harold Prince, and Stephen Sondheim. He debuted on Broadway as "The Master of the House" in Les Miserables (1991); his other Broadway roles include Driving Miss Daisy (2011) with James Earl Jones & Vanessa Redgrave, Memphis, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Damn Yankees (opposite the legendary Jerry Lewis), Boys From Syracuse (with Rebecca Luker), 42nd Street, and he was the stand-by for John Lithgow in Sweet Smell Of Success, directed by Sir Nicholas Hytner.
     Allen shared an Emmy Award for his contribution to Sondheim's Passion: Live From Lincoln Center, in which he appeared opposite Patti Lupone and Audra McDonald. He starred opposite Petula Clark in Sunset Boulevard, with Keith Michell in Lloyd-Webber's Aspects of Love, and with Marlo Thomas in Six Degrees of Separation.  He also was featured in the National Tours of Disney's The Little Mermaid, Guys & Dolls, and in a leading role in the world premiere of Whistle Down The Wind, directed by Hal Prince. 
      Allen’s Off-Broadway leading roles include Mimi Le Duck (opposite Eartha Kitt), Jack's Holiday (as Jack The Ripper), Romola & Nijinsky, Elliot Ness in Cleveland, The Rothschilds, Peephole, Mata Hari, Wonderful Town, and Annie Warbucks.  He has portrayed more than 200 roles in regional theatres.
       On television, Allen has appeared several times on Law & Order, Law & Order-SVU, and on soaps One Life To Live, Guiding Light, Loving, All My Children. He was a cast member of the 1987-88 cult hit TV show Saturday Night Dead on Philadelphia’s KYW-TV. His film work includes ​The Maury Island Incident, the award-winning Kissing Jessica Stein, Silence At Bethany, Lincoln and the War Within, Bruce Beresford's Her Alibi, The Animal Room, and My Little Girl. He appears in the web series ​Chaldea ​and ​Rocketmen.
       His Seattle work includes 27 appearances at the 5th Avenue Theatre: Something's Afoot (2024), The Hunchback of Notre Dame, A Room With A View, Man of La Mancha, Disney's The Little Mermaid, Kiss Me Kate, Paint Your Wagon, Spamalot, Oliver, Hairspray, Grey Gardens, Elf The Musical, Damn Yankees, The Sound of Music, Oklahoma, Titanic, A Christmas Story, Carousel, Cinderella, Candide, On The Town, Sunday In The Park With George, Memphis, Cabaret, Into The Woods. He starred there as "Sweeney" in Sweeney Todd (receiving a Footlight Award for Stellar Performance); Cabaret won a prestigious Ivie Award; Memphis won several Tony® awards. Allen appeared at Benaroya Hall accompanied by the late Marvin Hamlisch and the Seattle Symphony in the legendary Sondheim Tribute. Other Seattle appearances at Seattle Rep, ACT and Intiman include Ibsen in Chicago, Romeo & Juliet, Dirty Story, Mary Stuart, The Clean House, A Christmas Carol, Uncle Vanya, Richard III, Proof, Opus, Temple, and Private Lives.
       Among his many national commercials are spots for Kellogg’s, Pizza Hut, Sports Illustrated, BMW, Volvo, Campbell’s, DuPont, IBM, Time-Life, Norwegian Cruises, and Showboat Casinos.
       He has had the pleasure of working with Patti LuPone, Petula Clark, Donna McKechnie, Christine Ebersole, John Guare, Kristen Chenoweth, Chris Meloni, and the late Burton Lane, Jule Styne, Marvin Hamlisch, Martin Charnin, Charlotte Rae, Harve Presnell, George S. Irving, Keith Michell, Jerry Orbach, and Abe Vigoda, along with many others.