Phillip Allen

Since the late 1970s, Cynthia and Allen have created over forty social issue documentaries.

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.

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.