Jo Harvey Allen is a multifaceted artist, renowned for her work as an actress, playwright, poet, and pioneer in the field of women's radio. Her extensive filmography includes notable roles in True Stories, Fried Green Tomatoes, and The Client, as well as her recent appearance in The Homesman, which earned her a nomination for Best Lead Actress at the International Filmmaker Festival of World Cinema Berlin.
As a playwright, Allen has written, starred in, and toured her acclaimed one-woman plays across the US and abroad. Her notable productions include A Moment's Hesitation, Counter Angel, and As it is in Texas, which premiered off-Broadway at the Dance Theater Workshop and The New School in NYC. Her other one-woman plays include Hally Lou, Duckblind, and Homerun, which have been showcased at various venues such as the Aspen Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and the Cornet Theater in LA.
Allen has also co-written and starred in Chippy...Diaries of a West Texas Hooker, which premiered at the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia and Lincoln Center in NYC. She has collaborated on several opera productions, including Pioneer, Do You Know What Your Children Are Tonight?, and Covenant, which have been performed at the Spoleto Festival, the Washington Project for the Arts, and the Oliver Ranch Foundation.
In addition to her work in film and theater, Allen is married to artist and singer-songwriter Terry Allen, and has starred in all of his radio and theater pieces, including Juarez, The Embrace...Advanced To Fury, Anti-Rabbit Bleeder...A Biography, Reunion, Warboy (and the backboard blues),Ghost Ship Rodez, and MemWars Live. She has also co-written the radio play Every Three Minutes, which aired on NPR, and hosted the radio show Rawhide and Roses on KPPC AM/FM-Pasadena.
As a poet, Allen has authored the collection Cheek to Cheek, published by Duckdown Press, and has self-published Homerun. She has also exhibited her photographs, lithographs, and installations at various museums and galleries, including the National Museum of Peru, the Humboldt Museum in Havana, Cuba, and the Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco.
Throughout her career, Allen has received numerous awards and honors, including fellowships from Art Matters and the National Endowment for the Arts. She was also inducted into the West Texas Walk of Fame in 2015. The Allen's have two sons, three grandsons, and reside in Santa Fe, NM, and Austin, TX.
