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Daughter of dentist Arthur Allen and Pulitzer-prize nominated Vivan Ayers ( artist, poet, playwright, and publisher). Older siblings are jazz musician brother Tex (Andrew Arthur Allen Jr, born 1945), younger sister Debbie Allen(1950), and brother Hugh Allen (real estate banker in North Carolina). Phylicia and Debbie both speak Spanish fluently from living in Mexico as children. Sits on the Board of Directors of Atlanta, GA's Alliance Theatre Company, the largest regional theatre in the Southeastern United States. Appears in the video pre-show of the "Dinosaur" ride at Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park. Wears a size 9 shoe. Her mother Dr Vivian Elizabeth Ayers attended Brainerd Institute, Barber Scotia College and Bennett College. Vivian was the first poet in the state of Texas to receive the Pulitzer Prize Award nomination in 1952. Vivian was often called the "Poet Laureate of Texas." In the late 50's, her poetry, "Hawk," attracted the attention of NASA and for twenty years was the only poetry celebrated by NASA. She worked as an apprentice librarian at the Fondren Library of Rice University and was accorded faculty status in 1965, becoming the first African American to be so qualified. During her years at Rice, she organized and published The Adept Quarterly, an important contribution to the small publications movement of the time. Tied for the 2004 Drama Desk award for Best Actress in a play for "A Raisin in the Sun" with Viola Davis for "Intimate Apparel". In 1972, her mom Vivian's work, "Workshops in Open Fields," was hailed and recommended to the nation as a "prototype of grass roots programming" by the director of NEA. Vivian established the Adept New American Museum--a museum for art and history of the American Southwest; which features "Juneteenth" Black Cowboys, American Indian Sand Painting, seminars on the Emancipation Proclamation and Mayan studies-- in Mt Vernon NY. She is known as a leader in the arts community in New York area. Recorded the Narration for Epcot's Candlelight Processional Soundtrack, sold all over Walt Disney World during Christmas. Shares a birthday with comic-strip feline "Garfield" who made his newspaper premiere on June 19, 1978, making Phylica Rashad exactly 30 years older than Garfield. Aunt of Norman Nixon Jr. and Vivian Nixon. Received an honorary doctorate in Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University in 2009.