Keith Allen

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This article is about the comedian. For the hockey player, see Keith "Bingo" Allen.

Keith Allen (born 2 September 1953 in Swansea, Wales) is a British comedian, actor, singer and writer. He appeared in a number of films made by The Comic Strip Presents... (notably The Bullshitters, a parody of The Professionals) on Channel 4 in the early 1980s after becoming one of the breakthrough acts of the Comedy Store in 1979. The brother of comedian Kevin Allen, Keith Allen has done both straight and comedy acting. He appeared in the black comedy, Twin Town, the Channel 4 adaptation of A Very British Coup and played the murder victim in Danny Boyle's thriller Shallow Grave (1994).

He is a member of Fat Les, a band which also contains Britpop artists Damien Hirst and Blur bassist Alex James. Allen is also closely associated with the band New Order. He co-wrote their first number one single, "World In Motion," and occasionally performed with them live. He also once danced onstage with the Happy Mondays in New York City. In 2005 he appeared in the Endemol produced BBC2 television programme Art School alongside Ulrika Jonsson, John Humphrys and Clarissa Dickson-Wright where he discovered a passion for painting.