Byron Allen was born on Byron Allen Folks on April 22,1961 and is an American businessman, film and television producer, and comedian.
18 Facts About Byron Allen
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Byron Allen is the founder of the American media company Allen Media Group, which has interests in television production, broadcasting, film production, and digital media.
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In 1993, Byron Allen established what would later become known as Entertainment Studios.
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Byron Allen was born in Detroit, lived there until 1968, when he moved to Los Angeles with his mother after her divorce.
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At age 14, Byron Allen put together his first stand-up routine and began appearing on amateur night at comedy clubs throughout the Los Angeles area.
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Byron Allen attended high school at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles and college at the University of Southern California.
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Comedian Jimmie Walker saw Byron Allen's stand-up act and invited the 14-year-old comedian to join his comedy writing team alongside promising young comedians Jay Leno and David Letterman.
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In 1979 at the age of 18, Byron Allen made his television debut on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, becoming the youngest comedian to ever perform on the show; he used the appearance to learn more about the television industry.
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Allen co-wrote and co-starred in the 1988 CBS television film Case Closed, hosted the syndicated late-night talk show The Byron Allen Show from 1989 to 1992, and toured as an opening act for musicians such as Dolly Parton, Gladys Knight, Lionel Richie, and The Pointer Sisters.
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In 1993, Allen established a production company known as CF Entertainment, which would be devoted to producing low-cost non-fiction television programming; its first program would be the syndicated talk show Entertainers with Byron Allen, which featured interviews between Allen and celebrities.
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The interviews were filmed at hotel press junkets for upcoming films, using equipment set up by their distributors for use by the media; this allowed Byron Allen to produce the show on a relatively small budget.
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Byron Allen distributed the program under a bartered model, in which it would be offered to stations at no cost, with revenue sharing on advertising sales.
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In 2012, Byron Allen began forays into scripted programming with the sitcoms The First Family and Mr Box Office.
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In February 2022, Byron Allen made a bid to buy the Denver Broncos of the National Football League.
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In 2023, Byron Allen had made an unsuccessful bid of about $3 billion for Paramount's BET Media Group.
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In 2018, Byron Allen was selected for the Bloomberg 50 as one of "the people in business, entertainment, finance, politics, technology and science whose 2018 accomplishments were particularly noteworthy".
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Byron Allen received the 2019 Whitney Young Award at the 46th annual Los Angeles Urban League Awards dinner.
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Byron Allen has residences in Aspen, Maui, Los Angeles, and New York City.