Debbie Allen

Multi-award-winning actress Debbie Allen got her mainstream breakthrough playing Lydia Grant in the TV adaptation of Fame! during the 1980s, a role for which she won two Primetime Emmys and a Golden Globe Award. She has also played Dr Catherine Avery Fox in the hit series Grey’s Anatomy for over 10 years, starred alongside LL Cool J in 1990s sitcom In the House and was a guest judge on So You Think You Can Dance. As well as her Emmys and Golden Globes, she has won and been nominated for a host of other awards for her work as an actor, choreographer, and producer. Fittingly, she also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Now over 50 years into her career, she’s still going strong, with recent projects including directing the pilot of a new sitcom, The Ms Pat Show.

Allen was a passionate and talented dancer from a young age, although racism reared its ugly head when she auditioned for ballet school. Eventually, she decided to focus on other aspects of dance and performance and made her Broadway debut in 1970. A decade later, she would win awards for her portrayal of Anita in a major revival of West Side Story on the Great White Way.

Allen first appeared as Lydia Grant in the original film version of Fame!, albeit as a minor character, but she had a more significant presence in the subsequent TV series, which ran for five successful years in the wake of the film’s success (and which Grant also produced). Since then, she has rarely been away from the screen, stage, dance studio, or director’s chair.