Byron Allen

Allen was born in Detroit, Michigan, living there until 1968, when he moved to Los Angeles with his mother after her divorce. His interest in show business began during his childhood when he accompanied his mother, Carolyn Folks, to NBC Studios in Burbank where she worked as a publicist. With Folks, he often attended the taping of shows such as Chico and the Man, Sanford and Son, and The Tonight Show at 18. He often visited The Tonight Show's studio when it was empty, sitting at Johnny Carson's desk and pretending to host.

When comedian Gabe Kaplan was at NBC Studios for a Gladys Knight special, Allen visited his dressing room and asked him for advice on a career in comedy. Kaplan suggested that he visit The Comedy Store. At age 14, Allen put together his first stand-up routine (some of which originated from a spec script he had written for Sanford and Son), and began appearing on amateur night at comedy clubs throughout the Los Angeles area, including The Comedy Store and The Improv. Allen attended high school at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles and college at the University of Southern California.

Comedian Jimmie Walker saw Allen's stand-up act and invited the 14-year-old comedian to join his writing team alongside promising young comedians Jay Leno and David Letterman. In 1979, at the age of 18, Allen made his television debut on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, becoming the youngest comedian to ever perform on the show. Following the appearance, Allen accepted an offer from NBC to become a co-host for Real People—his first role on a network prime time program. Allen co-wrote and co-starred in the 1988 CBS television film Case Closed, hosted the syndicated late-night talk show The Byron Allen Show from 1989 to 1992, and toured as an opening act for musicians such as Dolly Parton, Gladys Knight, Lionel Richie, and The Pointer Sisters.

In 1993, Allen established a production company known as CF Entertainment, which would be devoted to producing low-cost, non-fiction television programming; its first program would be the syndicated talk show Entertainers with Byron Allen, which featured Allen interviewing celebrities. The interviews were filmed at hotel press junkets for upcoming films, using equipment set up by their distributors for use by the media; this allowed Allen to produce the show on a relatively small budget. Allen distributed the program under a bartered 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, resulting in Allen's home facing multiple foreclosures, and at one point losing telephone service—requiring him to conduct business via a payphone.

The company was renamed Entertainment Studios in 2003, and later became the Allen Media Group with Entertainment Studios becoming the name of its production subsidiary. In 2012, Allen began forays into scripted programming with the sitcoms The First Family and Mr. Box Office. Later in the decade, Entertainment Studios began to pursue various acquisitions, including film distributor Freestyle Releasing, TheGrio, The Weather Channel, 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 over $4.5 billion.

In February 2022, Allen made a bid to buy the Denver Broncos of the National Football League. Allen was ultimately outbid by a group led by S. Robson Walton.

In 2023, Allen had made an unsuccessful bid of about $3 billion for Paramount's BET Media Group.

Allen hosts and produces the syndicated comedy panel show Comics Unleashed (2006–present). In 2023, and again beginning in September 2025, the show was aired on CBS in the 12:35 a.m. late-night slot under a time buy arrangement whereby Allen's company bought airtime from CBS and sold commercial time to advertisers itself. Following CBS's cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in May 2026, Comics Unleashed began airing in its 11:35 p.m. time slot, with Allen's Funny You Should Ask (2017–present) airing at 12:35 a.m.

In 2024, Allen made a $14.3 billion offer to buy CBS and Paramount.

In May 2026, Allen and his controlling company Allen Family Digital LLC announced an agreement to buy a controlling stake in BuzzFeed, Inc. for $120 million. BuzzFeed Founder and CEO Jonah Peretti will be succeeded by Byron Allen, who will assume the role of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer upon closing.

Allen married TV producer Jennifer Lucas in 2007. The couple has three children. Allen is on the Motion Picture & Television Fund Board of Governors.

Allen has residences in Aspen, Colorado; Maui, Hawaii; Los Angeles; and New York City. In 2022, he bought 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.

Allen filed a $10 billion lawsuit, in 2021, through his company, Allen Media Group. He alleged the McDonald's hamburger chain discriminated against Black-owned media companies in its TV advertising budget. Allen's suit said that McDonald's practice of buying ad time on media outlets that target Black viewers was discriminatory because those purchases were made from a budget set aside for what the complaint described as "the African American tier" of outlets and was damaging to Black media owners because that tier had more limited funds available than the general tier that the company used for broader audiences on major networks and platforms.

The case was settled out of court in 2025.