Allison Engel has been a reporter for the Des Moines Tribune, San Jose Mercury and Pacific News Service, and a Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University. She was a speechwriter for former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack and lieutenant governor Sally Pederson and president of the Des Moines Playhouse.
She and her twin Margaret wrote the play Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins, which had its world premiere at Philadelphia Theatre Company with Kathleen Turner in the title role, where it broke the theatre’s box office record. The play went on to Arena Stage, the Geffen Playhouse, Berkeley Rep, the Zach Theatre and many others.
She was director of communications at the University of Southern California and associate director of the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities. She holds an MA in screenwriting from USC.
Earlier, she co-wrote Food Finds: America’s Best Local Foods and the People Who Produce Them with her twin, and adapted the book into a show on Food Network, where it ran for seven years.
