Actors Debbie Allen and Phylicia Rashad discovered their love of the performing arts while growing up in Houston with their parents, Vivian and Andrew Allen.

Vivian, a poet and cultural activist, worked with the Harris County Community Association in the city, and Andrew was a dentist there. When their daughters were kids, Texas was segregated, and they faced racism and discrimination, ultimately moving to Mexico. Vivian encouraged Debbie and Phylicia to pursue the arts, which helped them navigate that difficult time.

Sadly, Andrew died of diabetes in 1984. Vivian, however, turned 100 in 2023, and Debbie and Phylicia still have a special relationship with her to this day. They celebrated her milestone birthday with multiple parties and also helped re-publish her famous poem, Hawk.

“My mother is incredible,” Debbie said during an interview with Ebony in 2023. “I think her mental capacity has led her to this golden age of 100. She’s had a lot of challenges in her life, and we’ve lived through those challenges with her. But at the end of the day, there’s always been positive energy.”

Here’s everything to know about Debbie Allen and Phylicia Rashad’s parents, Vivian and Andrew Allen.

They share four kids

Vivian and Andrew welcomed four children together. Debbie and Phylicia have two brothers who are not in the spotlight — Hugh Allen, a real estate agent in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Andrew Allen Jr., an accomplished jazz musician.

They raised their kids in Texas

Vivian and Andrew raised their kids in Houston where they were immersed in the arts scene.

“For us, the arts were as much a part of life as climbing trees,” Phylicia told Town & Country about their childhood in a 2018 interview.

The previous year, the actress returned to Texas to perform with the Houston Symphony at Jones Hall. At the time, she opened up about her roots to Chronicle.

“I grew up in Houston, and part of our activities as children was an annual trip to the music hall to hear the Houston Symphony play,” she shared. “That was a big deal.” Phylicia added that it was “an honor” to come back and perform there.

When they were growing up there, Texas was segregated. During a June 2023 appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show, Debbie recalled, “I couldn’t go to dance class because I was Black.”

“I just know what the arts and education can do for a young person — it’s what helped me get through all that civil rights down in Texas when it was really bad,” she explained, adding, “What it was like in the ‘60s was really tough. I saw things as a child I shouldn’t see.”

Vivian is a poet and scholar

Vivian is a poet, American classicist and cultural activist with an impressive résumé. She’s best known for her 1952 collection of poems, Spice of Dawns, which earned her a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize, per the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture. Vivian also self-published a critically acclaimed long-form poem titled Hawk in 1957, which compared freedom to space flight.

“Mom was a mathematician,” Debbie told Ebony in August 2023. “She was one of those Hidden Figures women working at NASA; her poetry is written in stone at NASA.”

Debbie and Phylicia’s mother is passionate about education. According to Ebony, she studied classical Greek at Rice University, Columbia University and Princeton University, and she also studied and translated texts on Greek and Mayan culture and astronomy. Not to mention, the poet has received honorary doctorates form both Bennett College and Wilberforce University.

In 1973, she worked with the Harris County Community Association in Houston to develop her signature method of education, “Workshops in Open Fields,” per South Carolina African American.

Nancy Hanks, the Director of the National Endowment of the Arts at the time, recommended the program to the country as a model for grassroots arts education. Vivian was then invited to serve as an adviser to the endowment as a member of The Associated Councils of the Arts.

Andrew was a dentist and a veteran

During a March 2017 interview with Chronicle, Phylicia shared that her father’s dental office was one of her favorite places to spend time. When she was a teenager, he even hired her to be his receptionist in the summer. “I enjoyed that,” she recalled.

Phylicia added, “I remember the Charles A. George Dental Society (for African-American dentists) and the annual dental picnic, which was usually on my birthday. They’d serve the barbecue, baked beans and salad. It was fun.”

Andrew was also a veteran, and Phylicia paid tribute to him on Veterans Day in 2020. “Happy Veteran’s Day to my father, Andrew Arthur Allen Sr.! ❤️,” she captioned a photo on Instagram of her father holding her as a baby. “I miss you dearly.”

Vivian taught them to love the arts

Vivan always enthusiastically encouraged her daughters to value and pursue the arts. While speaking with NPR in 2010, Phylicia remembered, “It was my mother who taught us choral speech; it was my mother who taught us to tumble across the living room floor.”

“It was my mother who gave us a real appreciation for art and literature as living things,” she continued. “Not just as something hung on the wall or placed on the shelf — an appreciation for ideas and the power of thought and human intention.”

During her October 2018 interview with Town & Country, the outlet noted that when Debbie was young, no ballet school in Texas would admit her because she was Black. To overcome that obstacle, Vivian installed a ballet barre in their home and hired an experienced dancer to teach her.

They got divorced when their kids were young

According to The Huffington Post, Vivian and Andrew divorced when Phylicia was 6. While speaking about her childhood, the actress told the outlet in January 2017, “I have great memories of family. We can turn to each other always ― and do.”

Vivian moved the family to Mexico

During a December 2020 joint Instagram Live, the sisters recalled the time Vivian moved them to Mexico, which was a transformative experience.

“Our mother was the true renaissance woman, ahead of her time always,” Debbie said. “Sometimes that was not the best place to be in because she was progressive, and always pushing her children.”

The dancer explained that their mother was tired of racial segregation in the United States and wanted to see “something new” in Mexico. She emphasized, “This is something I always say to parents: Take your children with you wherever you go. No matter how difficult it is. That’s how Phylicia and I have become who we are.”

“Mommy always told us that we were children of the universe, and we had no boundaries,” Debbie shared. “Once we got to Mexico, we were able to see it.”

Once there, Phylicia noted that they were able to experience a place where “being Black was beautiful.”

Andrew died in 1984

In 1984, the actresses’ father died of diabetes at the age of 63. During an interview with Essence in September 2023, Debbie shared that her father’s words of advice about the disease: “Just keep dancing Deborah Kaye and you won’t get this.” The performer took those words to heart and makes sure to prioritize her health now.

“I’m moving around,” she told the magazine. “I’m jumping around with these young people here at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy. I take yoga. I do my steps and I go to my eye health care giver.” (Many members of her family have lost their eyesight due to diabetes.)

Debbie and Phylicia frequently honor their father by posting loving tributes to him on social media. On Father’s Day in 2023, Debbie shared a throwback photo of her and Andrew and captioned it, “#HappyFathersDay Miss you PAPA, Dr. Andrew A. Allen Sr. 😢❤️ We will forever speak your name!”

In 2021, Phylicia shared her own Father’s Day post on Instagram, featuring an old photo of Andrew smiling. “Our father, Dr. Andrew A. Allen, lives within our hearts,” she wrote. “We remember and say ‘Happy Father’s Day!’ ”

Debbie and Phylicia re-published their mother’s poem Hawk

Sixty-six years after Vivian self-published her poem, Hawk, Debbie and Phylicia decided to re-publish the book via Clemson University Press so that their mother’s words could reach a wider audience.

When she spoke with Ebony in August 2023, Debbie shared, “It’s a book that is a poem about man’s transcendence to a higher level of existence; it’s how she’s raised us.”

“She’s raised us to see ourselves in the universe, beyond the block we were raised on,” she continued. Debbie explained that she and Phylicia are who they are today because Vivian taught them “to see ourselves in the universe.”

At Vivian’s 100th birthday festivities in Chester, the managing editor of Clemson University Press, Alison Mero, shared details about the publishing process.

Mero explained that Phylicia specifically wanted a South Carolina press and a university press for her mother’s book. Both sisters ended up working closely with Clemson University Press on the project and ensured that the release coincided with Vivian’s 100th birthday.

“It’s been a wonderful collaboration,” Mero said. She noted that Debbie and Phylicia “weighed in … every step of the way” and added, “I think they’re very happy with the results.”

Mero also said in a statement about the book, “Dr. Ayers Allen’s vibrant and evocative writing resonates as well today as it did in 1957, when it foreshadowed the first successes in space travel.”

Vivian and Andrew always showed up to support their daughters

Over the years, Debbie and Phylicia’s parents attended numerous shows and events to cheer on their daughters. In a 2021 Father’s Day post for Andrew, Debbie shared a photo of her and her dad featured in an old newspaper. The father-daughter duo are embracing and smiling in the shot.

The newspaper caption reads, “Singer-actor and her father, Houston dentist Dr. A. A. Allen, share a happy moment backstage at the opening of the Broadway play West Side Story. Dr. Allen makes it a point to catch all his daughter’s opening night performances.”

In honor of Vivian’s July 2023 100th birthday, Essence shared several photos of her and her family together at entertainment events.

In one black-and-white photo from 1983, the poet posed with Andrew and Debbie at that year’s Golden Globe Awards. A decade later, Vivian enjoyed an evening with both of her daughters at the 65th annual Academy Awards.