December 4, 2025
Comedian-turned-mogul Byron Allen is the Founder/CEO of Entertainment Studios, owning The Weather Channel and championing Black media ownership.
Byron Allen Folks, widely known as Byron Allen, is an American comedian, producer, and entrepreneur who built a sprawling, multibillion-dollar media empire from a foundation in syndicated television.
As the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Allen Media Group, formerly Entertainment Studios, Allen oversees a global media company with assets in film, television production, broadcasting, and digital media, including the acquisition of The Weather Channel and the news platform TheGrio.
Born in Detroit in 1961, Allen moved to Los Angeles as a child after his parents divorced. His early exposure to the industry came via his mother, Carolyn, a publicist for NBC Studios, which allowed young Byron to mingle with stars like Redd Foxx and Freddie Prinze. Allen began performing stand-up comedy at age 14.
He was quickly discovered by Jimmie Walker, who invited him to join a writing team that included future late-night stars Jay Leno and David Letterman. This trajectory culminated in Allen’s historic appearance at age 18 on The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson, making him the youngest comedian to ever perform on the program.
After hosting NBC’s reality program Real People and touring as a stand-up opening act for musicians like Dolly Parton and Lionel Richie, Allen pivoted from “show business” to “business show,” establishing his production company, CF Entertainment, in 1993. His initial syndicated talk show, Entertainers with Byron Allen, employed a pioneering revenue-sharing model in which he distributed the program to stations at no cost, generating revenue through advertising sales.
Despite early struggles, including home foreclosures and the loss of phone service, Allen persevered, and his show remains in syndication.
Renamed Entertainment Studios in 2003, the company is now valued at over $4.5 billion. Allen has built one of the industry’s largest cable network portfolios, featuring 10 24-hour HD networks, including THE WEATHER CHANNEL, COMEDY.TV, CARS.TV, and LOCAL NOW. The company also continues to produce and distribute Emmy Award-winning and nominated shows while selling advertising for 43 broadcast and cable television programs.
Allen has aggressively pursued business acquisitions, including the film distributor Freestyle Releasing (now Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures), which released the 2017 hit shark thriller 47 Meters Down. Other film successes include the Western Hostiles and the mystery-thriller Chappaquiddick.
In the digital space, Allen acquired TheGrio in 2016, transforming it into a video-centric news platform that delivers compelling content to African Americans and attracts over 20 million annual visitors. The company’s 2018 acquisition of The Weather Channel, the No. 1 weather news television network, further diversified its portfolio. The Weather Channel has since deployed cutting-edge Immersive Mixed Reality (IMR) technology to enhance climate and weather reporting.
Allen has consistently championed economic inclusion and Black ownership of media companies, asserting, “Blacks need to both be on the camera and own the camera.”
In October, Allen was featured in Variety and shared his latest projects from his film studio with the publication.
This vision led to the formation of ALLEN MEDIA BROADCASTING in 2019, which began building a broadcast station group through a series of acquisitions, including 11 stations from USA Television. He also personally partnered with Sinclair Broadcast Group to acquire 21 Regional Sports Networks (RSNs) from Walt Disney/FOX Corporation for $10.6 billion.
Allen is married to TV producer Jennifer Lucas, and the couple has three children. He was inducted into Broadcasting and Cable’s Broadcast Hall of Fame in 2019.
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