Allen Knibbs

Allen Knibbs was born the youngest of 4 children on the east coast of South Africa in the city of Durban on 13 March 1978. His mother worked in the banking industry and his father worked many different jobs. After his parents' divorce when he was 3, his mother raised the 4 kids alone, she worked long hours to make ends meet. Times were tough, but in her love she instilled a never-give-up attitude in her kids. She eventually met his stepfather, an electrician, who then together continued to raise Allen, basically as a single child due to the 8 year age difference between him and his youngest sibling. Growing up, Allen would escape reality by role-playing, deeply immersing himself into self-made scenes, playing characters of his choice to his own scripts, ever pretending to be on film sets. He would do this over and over, changing characters for variation. Throughout his school years he acted in school plays, and always entertaining his friends with his characters, realized at a young age that acting was in his blood. He was selected for the prestigious South African Drakensberg Boys Choir, but was unable to attend. Following school he entered into other lines of work, these included factory work manufacturing carpets, a driver, an electronics shop clerk, and a salesman. Throughout these he always knew his true passion, so he saved up and attended acting classes to hone his skills. At age 21 he was walking in a mall when a casting agent approached him and suggested he do film. 2 weeks later he was in his first international television commercial in a small role, but then selected by the Italian director for a bigger featured part in the same commercial. Many commercials followed. In between film jobs, he acted in stage productions, most notably as a young (future President of South Africa) FW De Klerk in the late acclaimed South African playwright/director Jill Fletcher's "Andre Huguenet, Meneer!" and one of 3 frontmen in the On Broadway Musical tribute production "Still Cruisin', a Tribute to the Beach Boys", to rave reviews. Under his dear friend and mentor Jill Fletcher he also did Corporate Theater, touring. Back in film, he played the lead role as a love struck romantic in an independent American film project called "Dating Fate" directed by Mac Marshall, and a troubled nightclub host opposite decorated South African actors Marius Weyers and Gavin van den Berg in the small screen murder action miniseries "Lied van die Lappop", directed by the late Dirk de Villiers, father of acclaimed South African actor Gys de Villiers, who also starred. Sadly, due to other work commitments, Allen had to turn down a starring role in Season 4 of Starz' pirate action series Black Sails (2014), and more recently played the Hotel Manager in the contemporary musical version of the classic Cinderella story A Cinderella Story: If the Shoe Fits (2016) starring Sofia Carson and Jennifer Tilly. Allen is married to musical theater actress/singer Margaux Knibbs, they have one child.