Karen Allen

Allen was born in Carrollton, in rural western Illinois, the daughter of Patricia Allen (née Howell), a teacher, and Carroll Thompson Allen, an FBI agent.[2] She is of English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh descent.[3] Her father's job forced the family to move often. "I grew up moving almost every year and so I was always the new kid in school and always in a way was deprived of ever really having any lasting friendships," Allen said in 1987.[4] Although Allen says her father was very much involved in the family, she felt that she and her two sisters grew up in a very female-dominated household.[5] After she graduated from DuVal High School, in Lanham, Maryland, at 17, she moved to New York City to study art and design at Fashion Institute of Technology.[6] She later attended the University of Maryland, College Park for a year and a half,[6] and spent time traveling through South and Central America.[3] In 1974, Allen joined Shakespeare & Company in Massachusetts.[7] Three years later, moved back to New York City and studied at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute.[3]