Editor's note: This interview was conducted prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike that officially began on July 14, 2023 Kalen Allen spoke with Blavity about being #BlackOutside this summer, queer representation in TV and film and more.
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00:00Hey everybody, it's Kalen Allen.
00:02Thank you for joining me.
00:03I am here with Blavity because today
00:05we are talking about all things summer, okay?
00:07Cause I don't know about y'all, but it's black outside.
00:11Ha ha!
00:12Ooh, favorite memories of summer as a child.
00:15Oh, I used to love 4th of July.
00:18I grew up in Kansas City.
00:20And so during, you know, the dates of 4th of July,
00:24we would go to what was called Riverside
00:26and it was like all these tents.
00:28It'd be like 20 tents of fireworks stands.
00:31And we would go in there and we would get all our fireworks
00:34and I absolutely loved it.
00:35And then on 4th of July, I would be so anxious
00:38that it would still be daylight outside
00:39and I'd already be sitting in the garage,
00:41like waiting for the sun to go down.
00:43And then I would run out there and I would,
00:45we really loved like smoke bombs
00:46and sparklers and stuff like that.
00:48And then I would set them off.
00:49I have so many home videos of that time.
00:51My favorite thing to do in the summer.
00:54I love to go to Disney World.
00:55I love to go on the Disney Cruise.
00:57I love to go to Disneyland.
00:59I love to go walk in the park.
01:00I like to spend time outside when it's not too crazy hot,
01:04but when I can just go out and really enjoy the weather
01:06and just people watch and sit outside.
01:08Like yesterday I was out in the city
01:10and I sat at a crepe restaurant and I just ate crepes
01:14and watched people walk up and down the sidewalk.
01:15So those are the kinds of things
01:17I like to do in the summer.
01:19When I was in college, I studied theater and film
01:22with a concentration in acting.
01:25So I was always gonna work in the entertainment industry.
01:27And I'm a Capricorn.
01:29So I've always been business oriented.
01:30So when the opportunity with the Ellen DeGeneres show came,
01:34I didn't see it as, oh, this is my one time.
01:38This is all I'm gonna do.
01:39Like I wasn't living in the now.
01:40And I was like, how do I take this opportunity
01:42and build a career from it?
01:44So from the very beginning,
01:45I was already starting to pivot and do other things
01:48instead of just staying solely at the show.
01:50I mean, in my first year,
01:51I was already filming in American Pickle,
01:54which is a movie with Seth Rogen.
01:55So, you know, I was already like,
01:57how do I branch off and grow and expand and network so that,
02:01because I knew that the show wasn't gonna last forever.
02:03And I moved to New York in the last season.
02:05And then that's when I started working at Food Network
02:07because I was already, you know,
02:09I gotta take care of myself.
02:10I gotta make sure that, you know, as a child,
02:13as a young black queer person,
02:15that I am making sure that I always have
02:17a good foundation under me
02:19and that I'm always ready to grow
02:21and transition to the next thing.
02:23Funny thing about that is like,
02:24the scripted stuff is where I feel most at home
02:27because it's what I've done my entire life.
02:29I think the personality host stuff is the new stuff to me,
02:33you know, which comes easily
02:34just because I've always been an entertainer
02:36at the core of who I am.
02:38But I think what's exciting is that
02:41I enjoy being able to morph and change who I am
02:46and explore a different life
02:48and doing character development
02:50and being able to get a script in my hand
02:52and bring something that may just only exist in our minds
02:55as we read and create these images of what we're reading.
02:58To be able to bring that to life
03:00is something that, you know, I truly love to do.
03:04And I don't see myself ever doing anything else.
03:09I don't see myself slowing down.
03:10I don't see myself picking one or the other.
03:13I think I will always try to exist
03:15in all those realms of creativity.