- Born
- Birth nameDeborrah Kaye Allen
- Height5′ 2″ (1.57 m)
- Deborah Kaye Allen was born in Houston, Texas, to African-American parents, Vivian Elizabeth (Ayers), a poet and art director, and Andrew Arthur Allen, an orthodontist. As a child, Debbie, her older brother, Andrew (called Tex), and her older sister, actress Phylicia Rashad, lived in Mexico to escape US racism. Their mother decided to live there to give the Allen children a brief experience of not having to endure the chronic racism and segregation that was typical of Texas during the 1950s. Debbie and Phylicia are fluent in Spanish.
Debbie graduated from Jack Yates Senior High School in Houston, TX in 1967. She graduated cum laude from Howard University in 1971 with a BFA in Classical Greek Literature, Speech, and Theater from Howard University. She used her experiences from attending Historically Black College Howard to inform her production and direction of the TV show A Different World (1987).
Although her parents divorced, Debbie remained extremely close to her father until his death. With Phylicia she has production company "D.A.D." which stood for "Doctor Allen's Daughters". Her Pulitzer-nominated poet mother Vivian is, the artistic and free spirit that has influenced and encouraged the remarkable creativity that so marks Allen as a performer.- IMDb Mini Biography By: lilkunta
- SpousesNorman Nixon(April 27, 1984 - present) (2 children)Winnfred Wilford(June 22, 1975 - 1983) (divorced)
- Children
- ParentsArthur AllenVivan Ayers
- RelativesPhylicia Rashad(Sibling)Dola Rashad(Aunt or Uncle)Dola Rashad(Niece or Nephew)
- Received an honorary doctorate from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, the same institution that denied her admittance to its dance department when she was sixteen years old; she was told then that she had the wrong type of body for dance.
- Her father passed away ten days after he accompanied her to the Emmy Awards Ceremony in which she won for Best Choreography for Fame (1982).
- Choreographed five Academy Award shows.
- Her husband, Norman Nixon, is a former NBA player with the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers.
- Her mother Dr. Vivian Elizabeth Ayers attended Brainerd Institute, Barber Scotia College and Bennett College. Vivian was the first poet in the state of Texas to receive the Pulitzer Prize Award nomination in 1952. Vivian was often called the "Poet Laureate of Texas". In the late 1950s, her poetry, "Hawk", attracted the attention of NASA and for twenty years was the only poetry celebrated by NASA. She worked as an apprentice librarian at the Fondren Library of Rice University and was accorded faculty status in 1965, becoming the first African American to be so qualified. During her years at Rice, she organized and published The Adept Quarterly, an important contribution to the small publications movement of the time.
- [on working with rapper Malicious Jynx (2005)] There is just something about him, he is so talented and so gifted, so flamboyant and so charismatic. He doesn't deserve the harsh criticism he receives. Anyone who listens to his albums with their hearts and their ears will see his love, and his warmth. He is such a lovely young man and I love him for that. He gets negative publicity but people need to know the real person that's inside of him.
- A Different World (1987) - $1,000,000
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