After spending his entire childhood in Dallas, Texas, Allan left the comforts of his home country to attend college at the University of Missouri and pursue a future in sports broadcasting in 2005. Despite enjoying this academic path, Allan’s life changed dramatically while working with children impacted by the AIDS epidemic in Zambia, Africa in 2007. While there, Allan felt a distinct calling to shift his focus from sports to documentary storytelling. He felt a strong desire to tell stories of people to inspire social change. Upon returning to the states, Allan focused on learning the keys to visual storytelling and his training culminated in the winning of a Region 7 Mark of Excellence Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. Allan finished his degree in Broadcast Journalism in 2009 and his master’s in convergence journalism in December of 2010. Since graduating, Allan assembled a team to travel to Sapa, Vietnam to tell the story of a priest working to educated and equip the H’Mong people in the villages surrounding the town. The team produced a 25-minute documentary titled “The Beloved.”
Today, Allan lives back in the Dallas area with his lovely wife Patty and his super-lazy dog Gus. The two enjoy taking pictures, a nice dinner, snowboarding, traveling, and warm summer days. If you would like to see more of Allan’s work beyond this site, visit his personal site and blog at www.allandthompson.com.