J. T. Allen worked for seven years below the line on films like The Blues Brothers, Risky Business, Sixteen Candles, and The Breakfast Club. In 1984 he moved to Paris. He wrote a screenplay there and sent it to a friend in Hollywood. It sold. After moving to Los Angeles, he wrote several drafts of The Lion King and also The Preacher's Wife (starring Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston). His television credits include TNT's Geronimo (starring Joseph Runningfox and August Schellenberg), The Good Old Boys (starring Sissy Spacek, Matt Damon, Frances McDormand and Tommy Lee Jones), FX's Redemption (starring Jamie Foxx and Lynn Whitfield), and CBS's Death in Paradise (starring Tom Selleck, Viola Davis and William Devane). He co-wrote the indie film William, with director Tim Disney (starring Will Brittain, Maria Dizzia and Waleed Zuaiter). His dark comedy script, Curveball, the story of the Iraqi fabricator instrumental in starting the Iraq War, was adapted by Marshall Pailet & A.D. Penedo into the off-Broadway, New York Times Critics Pick musical Baghdaddy. Mr. Allen has also written two YA novels: Daisy and the Pirates and Daisy in Exile.

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J.T. Allen

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