Karen Allen attended the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City at the age of seventeen to study apparel design but her life took a different course after encountering the experimental theatre of Jerzy Grotowski's Polish Theatre Laboratory. While living in Washington D.C. Karen studied and worked for three years with the Washington Theatre Laboratory under the direction Anthony Abeson, a student of Grotowski.

In 1976 she moved back to New York City to pursue a career in theatre. However, her earliest opportunities as an actor came in the form of films when she was cast as "Katy" in John Landis' National Lampoon's "Animal House." For the next twenty years Karen divided her time between theatre work in New York City and work in films around the world. (See Karen's film And theatre work).

In the 1980's, after working at the Berkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge, MA, the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Williamstown, MA and Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, MA, Karen decided to live in the Berkshires Mountains of Western Massachusetts. A long-time practitioner of Hatha and Ashtanga yoga, Karen created and ran Berkshire Mountain Yoga from 1995 to 2000, which continues to be a thriving Yoga studio in Great Barrington, MA. During this time she also taught workshops in Creative Knitting and Design, Intarsia Techniques and Sweater Design at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY and at the Interlaken School of Art (IS183) in Interlaken, MA, and at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, MA. Along with workshops in knitting Karen also currently teaches Film Acting at Simon's Rock College of Bard in Great Barrington, MA.

In 2002 Karen returned to the Fashion Institute of Technology to study machine knitting technology and shortly thereafter began Karen Allen - Fiber Arts in Great Barrington, MA. Today, although she continues to work in theatre and films, her design work has become an equally fascinating aspect of her creative life.