Once I got to high school and auditioned for a play and got in, I thought this was really what I was looking for. Once that had got cleared up, from 13 on, that was it.

Allen returned to Broadway in March 2009 when Joan Allen played the role of Katherine Keenan in Michael Jacobs' play Impressionism opposite Jeremy Irons at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. Allen appeared in Death Race a prequel of the film Death Race 2000 playing a prison warden. Personal life
In 1990 Allen married actor Peter Friedman.

Joan Allen (born August 20 1956) is an American actress. She has received three Academy Award nominations; Joan Allen was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Nixon (1995) and The Crucible (1996) and for Best Actress for The Contender (2000).