You know, I don't really understand a suburban environment. I want to be out in the woods, I want to be where it's wild, I want to wake up and hear birds, I want to walk outside and see a gaggle of turkeys bouncing across my lawn - I want to be someplace like that - or I want to be right in the middle of an urban environment.

She also teaches yoga. "I grew up moving almost every year and so I was always the new kid in school and always in a way was deprived of ever really having any lasting friendships" Allen said in 1987. Early life
Allen was born in Carrollton in rural western Illinois the daughter of Patricia Allen (née Howell) a teacher and Carroll Thompson Allen an FBI agent.

Allen has also had roles in films including National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) The Wanderers (1979) Cruising (1980) Starman (1984) Scrooged (1988) The Sandlot (1993) and Poster Boy (2004).