Who is Byron Allen?
Byron Allen Folks is a famous American professional businessman, television producer, and comedian. Allen is the founder of the U.S. media company Entertainment Studios, which has interests in television production, broadcasting, film production, and digital media.
Byron Allen Career
Early career
Allen was born in Detroit and then moved to Los Angeles, where he initially pursued a career in stand-up comedy. Following an appearance on The Tonight Show, he started to expand into the TV world, including becoming a host for NBC’s Real People. He then established what would later become known as Entertainment Studios in 1993.
Professional career
Comedian Jimmie Walker saw his stand-up act and invited the 14-year-old comedian to join his comedy writing team together with promising young comedians David Letterman and Jay Leno. At the age of 18, he made his TV debut on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1979. He became the youngest comedian to ever perform on the show. Byron used his appearance to learn about the television production industry.
In the wake of his appearance on The Tonight Show, NBS cast him as a reporter for its series Real People- marking his first role on a network prime-time show. He then co-wrote and costarred in the 1988 CBS television film Case Closed, and hosted the syndicated late-night talk show The Byron Allen show from 1989 to 1992. Allen toured as an opening act for musicians including Gladys Knight, Dolly Parton, Lionel Richie, and The Pointer Sisters.
1993-present
In 1993, he established a production company known as CF Entertainment, which would be devoted to producing low-cost non-fiction television programming. The company’s first show would be the syndicated talk show Entertainers with Byron Allen, which featured interviews between him and celebrities. The interviews were filmed at hotel press junkets for upcoming films, allowing him to produce the program at a relatively low cost by leveraging the equipment set up by the studio. He then distributed the show under a brokered model, in which it would be offered to stations at no cost with revenue sharing on advertising sales. The business model was not initially successful, leading to his home facing many foreclosures. At one point losing telephone service-requiring him to conduct business through a pay phone.
In 2003, the company was renamed Entertainment Studios. He then started forays into scripted programming with the sitcoms The First Family and Mr. Box Office in 2012. Later in the decade, the company started to pursue various acquisitions such as film distributor Freestyle Releasing, The Weather Channel, and TheGrio. As well as an equity stake in Sinclair Broadcast Group’s acquisition of the Fox Sports Networks, and broadcast television stations. By October 2022, the company was valued at more than $4.5 billion. Allen then made a bid to buy the Denver Broncos of the National Football League in February 2022. He was ultimately outbid by a group led by S. Robson Walton.
How old is Byron Allen?
Byron Allen Folks is aged 61 years as of 2022, born on April 22, 1961, in Detroit, Michigan, U.S. He shares his birthday with famous celebrities such as David Luiz, Amber Heard, Tammy Hembrow, Jack Nicholson, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Cassidy Freeman, Michelle Ryan, and many others.
Byron Allen Family
Who are Byron Allen’s parents?
Byron Allen Folks was born in Detroit to his parents Carolyn Folks and her spouse. He was brought up there until 1968 when his mother moved to Los Angeles after her divorce. His mother worked as a publicist at NBC Studios in Burbank, where Allen got interested in show business in his childhood. Information about his father is not known to the media and he remains unnamed to date.
Does Byron Allen have siblings?
Allen has not shared any information about having any siblings. It seems after his parents’ divorce his mother did not get into another relationship.
Byron Allen Education
Allen attended Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, where he graduated. He then enrolled at the University of Southern California, where he later graduated.
Byron Allen Interests
He got interested in show business when e went with his mother to her workplace at NBC Studios in Burbank. Allen, at the age of 14 put together his first stand-up routine and started appearing on amateur nights at comedy clubs throughout the Los Angeles area. He is on the Motion Picture & Television Fund Board of Governors.
Byron Allen Spouse
Allen is currently married to his beautiful and supportive wife Jennifer Lucas a television producer. The couple is blessed with three children together. They live in their different homes in Aspen, Maui, Los Angeles, and New York City. Allen purchased a two-home compound in Beverly Hills, California from Jeffrey Skoll for $22 million and a mansion in Malibu, California, previously owned by Tamara Gustavson for $100 million in 2022. The latter was later reported to be the most expensive U.S. home purchase ever made by an African American.
Byron Allen Children
Allen and his spouse and soulmate Lucas have three children together in their marriage. They have two daughters, Chloe Ava Allen, born in 2008, Olivia Rose Allen, born in 2010, and one son Lucas Byron Allen, born in 2012.
Byron Allen Height
Allen has a well-built, muscular, and physically fit body with a height of 1.75 m (5 ft 8 in) and a weight of 171 lbs (78 kg).
Awards
In 2018, he was picked for the Bloomberg 50 as one of ”the people in business, entertainment, finance, politics, technology, and science whose 2018 accomplishments were particularly noteworthy”. Allen was also picked for the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs at the Goldman Sachs Builders & Innovators Summit 2018. He was honored by The Salvation Army and the Los Angeles Metropolitan advisory board at the Salvation Army’s 11th annual Christmas Kettle luncheon.
Allen was then a recipient of the National Association of Television Program Executives’ 16th Annual Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Awards. The award was presented during the annual NATPE Miami Marketplace & Conference in January 2019. He earned the 2019 Whitney Young Award at the 46th annual Los Angeles Urban League Awards dinner. In February 2023, the African American Student Union of the Harvard Business School presented him with its inaugural ”Legendary Honor”.
Byron Allen’s Net Worth
American professional businessman, TV producer, and comedian Allen has been active from 1979 to the present. He owns a production company called Entertainment Studios currently worth over $4.5 billion. Allen has an estimated net worth of around $800 million as of 2023.
