Biography
Respected talent representative, casting director, and producer Bonni Allen died of complications from cancer on February 20, in Los Angeles.
A native New Yorker (and proud of it), she opened Bonni Allen Talent, successfully representing film, television and Broadway actors, including Nancy Opel and Teresa Parente. When client Jason Alexander was cast as "George Costanza" on the iconic series, "Seinfeld," she relocated to Los Angeles where she continued to represent actors until she decided a career change was in order.
She became a casting director, with credits on a number of features and television movies. She was also one of the first executives hired by Studio M/Weberworks, a nationwide cable television network reaching an estimated thirty million homes. As Creative Executive In charge Of Acquisition & Development of New Projects and Casting, she worked with some of Hollywood's major producers, including Jonathan Sanger, Lawrence Gordon, Steven Soderbergh, The Farelly Brothers and Penny Marshall
She turned her hand to writing, and her first feature script, "Only In The Movies, "was quickly optioned. A number of feature projects were also in various stages of development.
Eventually, she returned to her original love of working with actors and began working as a personal manager. She partnered with Marrissa O'Leary to form allen + o'leary management, where her clients included Lauralee Bell, Greg Roman, Jonathan Fraser, and Nick Baillie.
Allen was known for her quick and biting wit, as well as her quickness to right any perceived wrong. Client Michael Orenstein described their relationship as "the kind of rollercoaster that only two creative people who care for each other deeply could ever ride."
