Tim Allen

About Tim Allen

Tim Allen (born Timothy Allen Dick; June 13, 1953) is an American comedian, actor, voice-over artist and entertainer perhaps best known for his role in the sitcom Home Improvement and his roles in the Disney film series of The Santa Clause and Toy Story. He was ranked #48 on Comedy Central Presents: 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time and is often confused with the English musician of the same name.

Allen was born in Denver, Colorado, the son of Martha Katherine, a community-service worker, and Gerald M. Dick, a real estate agent. His father died in a car accident, colliding with a drunk driver, when Allen was eleven. Two years later, his mother married her high school sweetheart, a successful business executive, and moved with her six children to Birmingham, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, to be with her new husband and his three children. Allen attended Ernest W. Seaholm High School in Birmingham, where he was in theater and music classes (resulting in his love of classical piano), and attended Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. He later received an honorary degree, which was highlighted for the main plot of the fifth season Home Improvement episode "Doctor in the House".

Allen began his career as a comedian. On a dare from one of his friends, he participated in a comedy night at a comedy club in Detroit. While in Detroit he began to get recognition appearing in local television commercials and appearing on cable comedy shows such as Gary Thison's Some Semblance of Sanity. He later moved to Los Angeles and became a member of The Comedy Store there. He began to do stand-up appearances on late-night talk shows and specials on record and film.