Stephanie Allain

Stephanie Allain (born October 30, 1959) is an African-American producer of independent movies in Hollywood, California.

Early life
Stephanie Allain was born in New Orleans to an African-American father Dr. Charles Allain, a biochemist, and a white mother Gwen Allain Miller, an educator. Her family moved near Los Angeles, California, in 1965, and Allain attended the University of California, Santa Cruz, graduating with a B.A. in English and Creative Writing.

Career
She began her film career in 1985 at Creative Artists Agency, first as a script reader, then as a staff reader. As a story analyst, she worked for 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., and finally in 1989, at Columbia Pictures. There, Allain was one of twelve readers at the studio, and one of only two African-American readers. She rose through the ranks to become Senior Vice President of Production and was influential in encouraging and developing an African-American filmmaking community in Hollywood in the 1990s.

During her tenure at Columbia, Allain launched the careers of several young filmmakers including John Singleton, Robert Rodriguez and Darnell Martin. She personally pitched to Columbia's executives Singleton's Boyz n the Hood (1991). The controversial film would become a critical and commercial hit, garnering Singleton two Academy Award nominations. Among the films under her supervision were Poetic Justice (1993), I Like It Like That (1994), and The Craft (1996).

Of her time at Columbia, Allain had this to say: I was fortunate to find John and Robert Rodriguez and Darnell Martin and my tenure at Columbia was really marked by my own niche which was urban indie movies that had the blessing and the money and the studio behind it; so those filmmakers were able to elevate their game and graduate to the big times pretty effortlessly after their first movies because the studio – Columbia was just so supportive and their work was so good that they got out into the world and I've benefited from that frankly.

In 1996, Allain left Columbia Pictures to become President of Jim Henson Pictures. During her 4 years there, she produced Caroline Thompson's Buddy, as well as Henson brand movies, Muppets From Space and The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland. After her stint at Henson, Allain joined 3Arts Entertainment, where she developed projects for clients and produced Reggie Rock Bythewood's Biker Boyz.

In 2003, Allain sold her house and founded Homegrown Films. Teaming with John Singleton, Craig Brewer's Hustle & Flow was produced. Hustle & Flow was sold to MTV/Paramount for a 9 million dollars and went on to win the Audience Award at Sundance in 2005, an Academy Award for Best Original Song and earned a Best Actor nomination for Terrence Howard.

In 2006, Allain and Homegrown Films produced another first time director, music video director, Sanaa Hamri's Something New, starring Sanaa Lathan and Simon Baker.

In 2007, she worked again with producer John Singleton, partnering with Craig Brewer and his Southern Cross the Dog production company based at Paramount Pictures. Paramount Vantage released their latest film, Black Snake Moan, starring Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci and Justin Timberlake on February 23, 2007.

She was the Festival Director for the LA Film Festival from 2011 to 2016.

Personal life
She was married to Mitch Marcus from 1988 to 1999. She is currently married to Tony Award-nominated and Grammy Award-winning composer Stephen Bray, who is composer and lyricist of the Broadway version of the Alice Walker book The Color Purple. Allain has three children.