Phillip Allen(III)
- Editor
- Producer
- Editorial Department
Phillip Randall Allen was born in Houston, Texas at the Heights
Hospital. He lived in several Texas cities growing up because of his
father's work as a Millwright. He has lived in Lufkin, Nacogdoches,
Beaumont, Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston, and Freeport, not necessarily in
that order. From 2nd grade through high school graduation he lived in
Lufkin, Texas. At 16 he went to work for a local radio station and at
18 went to work for the local television station. Later he moved to a
station across town. Phil was offered a radio position in Beaumont, Texas and
worked for two different stations there over a year or so. He moved
back to Lufkin and went to Angelina College. He decided to continue his
college work and finish his degree in Theatre at Stephen F. Austin in
Nacogdoches. In 1979 he graduated with a BFA in Theatre with a second
major in Radio/TV/Film. While in Nacogdoches he worked at the local
radio station until he graduated and then moved to Fort Worth where he
married Jill Turnbow whom he had met at SFA. He worked for Tandy
Corporation in marketing and promotions for 3 years. After a short time, his marriage
to Jill ended in divorce. Phil moved to Dallas and went on tour with
several theatrical productions and met his 2nd wife Laurel McConkey.
They married a year or so after meeting. While living in Dallas he
began working with the local cable access channel and re-kindled his
interest in editing and production that started at the television
station in his teens. In the early 1990s he worked for a corporate
event company. He started working as an audio technician and moved into
video editing and producing. After leaving Richard Kidd Productions
which was bought by Caribiner, Inc., he started his own production
company. Over time he learned that he preferred editing over producing
and began freelancing with a few local Dallas producers. The longest
running relationship has been with Cynthia Salzman Mondell and Allen
Mondell of Media Projects, Inc. Since the late 1970s, Cynthia and Allen
have created over forty social issue documentaries. In 2006 they asked Phil to
co-produce a documentary on the history of the State Fair of Texas.
A Fair To Remember, continues to run on KERA-TV, the Dallas PBS station, in Austin
and on other Texas PBS stations. In 2008 it won a Lone Star EMMY® award.
Phil continues to edit documentaries for them and other producers around
the U.S. as well as Internationally.