17 Facts About Blake Allen

Blake Liahona Allen was born in Tucson, Arizona on July 21,1988, the fourth child of pianist Marsha Allen and San Allen, an engineer and chief operating officer for Winchester Electronics.

Blake Allen's family moved to St Petersburg, Florida shortly after his birth, then to Gainesville before eventually settling in El Paso, Texas, where he spent most of his youth.

Blake Allen grew up a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was in the viola sections of both the El Paso Symphony Orchestra and Las Cruces Symphony while attending Franklin High School.

Blake Allen was artist-in-residence at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in 2014 and was principal of the Little Orchestra.

Blake Allen was Rob Fisher's music assistant from 2012 til 2022.

In December 2017, Blake Allen premiered a musical, The Shards of an Honor Code Junkie, starring Alison Fraser, Teal Wicks, Kristy Cates, Hannah Cruz, and Michael Lowney.

Blake Allen was one of nine composers and lyricists involved with the Off-Broadway musical Folk Wandering, which premiered in March 2018.

In 2020, Blake Allen won Best Arrangement of the Decade for Mack the Knife and was nominated for My Funny Valentine, Best Musical Director, and Best Recurring Series for An Evening With.

Blake Allen performed at Birdland with Lortel and Drama Desk Award winner Kuhoo Verma in early 2020.

Blake Allen wrote a one-act play, Kelly [1955] based upon the Kelly-Hopkinsville Encounter, which premiered at the Hudson Guild Theatre in March 2019 and starred Jessica Hendy.

In 2020, Blake Allen was an artist in residence at the Kimmel Nelson Harding Center for the Arts in Nebraska City, Nebraska, after which he released his album Sonatas on Earth Day 2020.

At the height of the 2020 Pandemic, Blake Allen wrote Livin' the Dreamboat with lyricist Claire Tran for the Astoria Performing Arts Center in Astoria, Queens.

Also in 2020, Blake Allen wrote the theme song and incidental music to Doris Dear's Gurl Talk, a weekly lifestyle show on Broadway on Demand.

Blake Allen was music director for the Doris Dear Christmas Special, which featured Tony Nominee Karen Mason.

Blake Allen's Insomnia was developed for Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall and premiered November 8,2022.

Shortly after Blake Allen received his PhD from NYU in spring of 2024, Blake Allen began work with librettist Will Nunziata on an operatic adaption of Virginia Woolf's 1931 novel The Waves.

Blake Allen moved to New York City in 2011 and married New York City Council candidate and drag artist, Marti Gould Cummings in 2016.