1990s[edit]

During the early 1990s Allen had minor roles in the BBC’s The Trials of Oz^[4] and in Channel 4‘s “Look at it This Way”.^[5] He appeared in several episodes of The Comic Strip, French and Saunders,^[6] Murder Most Horrid and Bottom.

He appeared in Ben Elton‘s play Silly Cow at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket,^[7] and in Howard Brenton‘s Berlin Bertie ^[8] at London’s Royal Court Theatre. He received a Fringe First Theatre Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1988 for his starring role in Sean Mathias‘ A Prayer for Wings directed by Dame Joan Plowright.^[9][10]

Allen made “On The March With Bobby’s Army”^[11][12] (BBC–1991) – a 2-hour solo undercover film covering English football hooligans at the Italia 90 World Cup. He presented the BBC football series Standing Room Only and wrote and directed several documentaries for the BBC, including “Bombay Brown Wash”, “Booze Bores Barbours and Brilliance”, and “Rotten to the Core”.^[13]

In 1995 Allen appeared as DC Kray in the first series of BBC’s sitcom The Thin Blue Line.

Allen’s debut feature movie was Twin Town. It was BAFTA-nominated and a BAFTA Cymru winner^[14] and premiered at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival.^[15][16] Twin Town was also nominated for a Golden Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival and helped launch the film careers of actors Rhys Ifans^[17] and Dougray Scott.

After this, he went on to direct Hollywood feature film The Big Tease.^[18]

2000s[edit]

He supervised and developed projects in Hollywood including ‘Coming Out’ for Milk Wood Films and ‘Cheek to Cheek’‚ a feature film collaboration with Gene Wilder. Allen set up Airstream Films^[19] at this time‚ developing a diverse slate of feature projects with his producing partner, Kate McCreery.

He then directed Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London.

After his mainstream success, Allen chose to bow out of Hollywood, so he relocated in 2004 with his young family to the outskirts of Clones, a small town in County Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland, where he designed and built a timber eco-house and became a rare-breed pig farmer.^[20][21]

In 2005 Allen adapted Louis Stevenson’s novel, Treasure Island, as a feature Film and TV series for Working Title Films.

Allen directed the first series of ITV‘s Benidorm in 2007,^[22] for which he was nominated for his second BAFTA award.

Allen and playwright/novelist Patrick McCabe were organisers and creative directors of The Flat Lake Literary & Arts Festival^[23] which was held annually for five years in County Monaghan, Ireland from 2007 to 2011. The Flat Lake was a favourite performing venue of Poet Laureate Seamus Heaney, Colm Toibin and other Irish writers.

2010s[edit]

In 2013 Allen directed “Y-Syrcas (S4C)” ^[24] which was nominated for a BAFTA Cymru Award. Y-Syrcas also won the audience and jury awards^[25] at The European Minority Language Film Festival 2014.

Allen’s film version of Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood was shot in two language versions, English and Welsh, and the Welsh film was selected as the British entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards.^[26] and was nominated for a BAFTA award in 2015 and several BAFTA Cymru awards. He played a key role in assisting Swansea City Council’s 2017 bid^[27] to become the 2021 UK City of Culture.

In 2019 he set up The Mobile Film School, a film-maker mentoring concept devised by Allen to teach people to make films using smartphone camera technology.^[28]

2020s[edit]

Allen is currently in Post Production on La Cha-Cha, a feature film he shot during the Covid lockdown summer of 2020. La Cha-Cha was shot entirely on iphones with Moondog anamorphic lenses and produced through his Mobile Film School. Allen describes La Cha-Cha as a counterculture Rom-Com and is set for release in Summer 2021.^[29][30]

Allen is also developing a Twin Town follow up titled Tin Town, a feature film set in the world of home grown cannabis in Llanelli,^[31] and another film titled The Crucible, a period TV series set in 19th Century Merthyr Tydfil during the industrial revolution.

Personal life[edit]

Allen is a supporter of Welsh independence. “Independence for Wales finally feels like a reality worth talking seriously,” he said. “If we can alter the perception that the traditional cultural elite is making way for a diverse reflection of our society from which to govern a truly independent Wales, then you can most definitely count me in, we have nothing to lose and everything to gain.”^[32]

Wikipedia