Allyson was born in Bellevue Hospital in New York City, and her early years were spent in Greenwich Village, before embarking on a series of moves around the globe, taking her to England, New Mexico, California, Connecticut, back to New York City, upstate New York, and finally back to California.
Her parents divorced when she was just fourteen, and she spent some time at an alternative boarding school in Vermont. Despite this challenging start, Allyson managed to graduate top of her class in 1980.
At the age of eighteen, she moved to Washington Heights with an older boyfriend and worked as a costume designer on rock videos. She also briefly worked as a model and dancer during this time. Two years later, Allyson made the bold decision to move to Los Angeles to escape an increasingly serious problem with cocaine and to live with her brother.
The next fifteen years were marked by struggles with bulimia and drug addiction. At twenty-three, she got married, but the union was short-lived, and she was forced to fold her first company, Downey Management, which she had founded to manage the talent of actors, models, and writers.
After a difficult divorce, Allyson moved back to California, where she continued to model and write, and devoted herself to New Age studies, which led to a brief stint at college, where she studied forensic psychology, though she ultimately found it too challenging to pursue.
Seeking a new path, Allyson started working as an intern in treatment centers up and down the east coast, under the guidance of trained professionals. She then made a major move back to New York City, where she collaborated with a silent partner to form a multi-faceted production company called Multiple Choice Productions.
This marked the beginning of her journey towards creating her own full-length feature film, "Tribeca's G-Spot", which she is writing, directing, and starring in, set to be released in the fall of 2002. In addition, Allyson continues to act in other people's films, most recently in "Funny Valentine" directed by Joel Oppenheim and starring Anthony Michael Hall.
Allyson is also currently working on a book of short stories, titled "Malachi's Fishbowl" or "What Do You Do When You've Done Everything You Would Never Do", which she is most excited about.
