Antoine Allen (born 20 December 1987) is a British documentary presenter and TV reporter, best known for reporting for ''

ITV News ITV News is the branding of news programmes on the British television network ITV. ITV has a long tradition of television news. Independent Television News (ITN) was founded to provide news bulletins for the network in 1955, and has since conti ...

'' programmes and documentaries.

Early life

Antoine Allen was born in

Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...

, England, to British-Caribbean parents. He attended

Northampton School for Boys Northampton School for Boys (NSB) is a secondary school in Northampton, England. It was founded as Northampton Town and County Grammar School in 1541 by Thomas Chipsey, Mayor of Northampton. Years 7 to 11 are boys-only, while Sixth Form classes a ...

in Northamptonshire. As a student Allen competed in 400m hurdles at a national level and won a bronze medal for high jump at the

British Athletics Championships The British Athletics Championships is the premier national championship in track and field held in the United Kingdom, and are organised by British Athletics. The event has doubled as the main trials meet for international team selection for maj ...

. Allen graduated from

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

Broadcasting career

In 2022, Antoine Allen's investigation into gun crime in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, aired in

ITV's ITV is a British free-to-air public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television network. It was launched in 1955 as Independent Television to provide competition to BBC Television (established in 1936). ITV is the ol ...

current affairs show

On Assignment ''On Assignment'' is an ITV current affairs programme, fronted by '' ITV News'' international affairs editor, Rageh Omaar. The programme first aired on 19 March 2014, following ''ITV News at Ten''. ITV News produces the half-hour programmes, ...

. The same year, Allen was shortlisted for the

Sports Journalists' Association The Sports Journalists' Association (SJA) is an association for British sports journalists. It represents the British sports media on the British Olympic Association's press advisory committee and acts as a consultant to organizers of major events ...

Broadcast Journalist Of The Year 2021. Allen joined

ITV Sport ITV Sport is a sport producer for ITV. It was formed following the merger between Granada Sport and Central Sport.FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

coverage as their match day reporter for the 21/22 season In 2021, Allen produced his second documentary for ''ITV News'', highlighting positive male role models. The documentary was about boxer

Lawrence Okolie Lawrence Okolie (born 16 December 1992) is a British Nigerian professional boxer who has held the WBO cruiserweight title since 2021. At regional level, he held the Commonwealth cruiserweight title from 2018 to 2019, and the British and Europe ...

's journey from being bullied at school due to being clinically obese, to becoming a WBO cruiserweight world champion boxer. In 2020, Allen presented '' Good Morning Britain''s regional London news and reported for ''

ITV Lunchtime News The ''ITV Lunchtime News'' is the afternoon news programme produced by ITN on the British television network ITV. It airs Monday to Friday from 1:30pm, covering British national and international news stories and is presented by Nina Hossain. ...

''. He had notable interviews with boxer

Anthony Joshua Anthony Oluwafemi Olaseni Joshua (born 15 October 1989) is an English professional boxer. He is a two-time former unified world heavyweight champion, having held the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO titles twice between 2016 and 2021. At r ...

, ICC Cricket World cup winner

Eoin Morgan Eoin (, or ) is an Irish name. The Scottish Gaelic equivalent is () and both are closely related to the Welsh . It is also cognate with the Irish . In the Irish language, it is the name used for all Biblical figures known as ''John'' in Engli ...

, Rugby World Cup winner Martin Johnson, New Zealand rugby player

Jonah Lomu Jonah Tali Lomu (12 May 1975 – 18 November 2015) was a New Zealand professional rugby union player. Lomu is considered to have been the first true global superstar of rugby, and consequently had a huge impact on the game. He is widely regarde ...

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

gold medalist swimmer

Rebecca Adlington Rebecca Adlington (born 17 February 1989) is a British former competitive swimmer who specialised in freestyle events in international competition. She won two gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in the 400-metre freestyle and 800-metre ...

, long-distance runner

Mo Farah Sir Mohamed Muktar Jama Farah (born Hussein Abdi Kahin; 23 March 1983) is a British long-distance runner. His ten global championship gold medals (four Olympic and six World titles) make him the most successful male track distance runner ever ...

, two-time

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

winning manager

José Mourinho José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix GOIH (; born 26 January 1963), is a Portuguese professional football manager and former player who is the current head coach of Italian Serie A club Roma. Once dubbed "The Special One" by the British ...

, and

gold medalist gymnast

Max Whitlock Max Antony Whitlock (born 13 January 1993) is a British artistic gymnast. With fourteen medals and six titles in Olympic and world championships, Whitlock is the most successful gymnast in his nation's history, and the most successful pommel h ...

. ''Vogue'' photographer

Misan Harriman Misan Harriman (born 1977) is a Nigerian-born British photographer, entrepreneur and social activist. As well as being one of the most widely-shared photographers of the Black Lives Matter movement, Harriman is the first black man to shoot a cov ...

, including a special

Black History Month Black History Month is an annual observance originating in the United States, where it is also known as African-American History Month. It has received official recognition from governments in the United States and Canada, and more recently ...

interviews about his career and year covering the

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...

protests. In the same year, Allen had an exclusive interview with British boxer Anthony Yarde about the death of Yarde's father and grandmother due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. , n 2019, Allen joined

ITN Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based television production company. It is made up of two divisions: Broadcast News and ITN Productions. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, N ...

, as a TV reporter for

ITV News London ''ITV News London'' is a British television news service broadcast on both ITV London and the ITV Hub. It is produced by ITN. History London News Network The programme launched on Monday 4 January 1993 as ''London Tonight'', after Carlton T ...

. He produced and reported a documentary about footballer

Chuba Akpom Chuba Amechi Akpom (born 9 October 1995) is a professional footballer who plays as a striker for EFL Championship club Middlesbrough. Akpom began his career at Arsenal, making his senior debut in 2013. Whilst at Arsenal, he had loan periods wi ...

's unbeaten season at PAOK F.C. Allen was named as one of the Ugo Ehiogu "Ones To Watch" by Th
Football Black List
In 2018, Allen joined

Onefootball OneFootball is a platform-based football media company. The OneFootball app features live-scores, statistics and news from 200 leagues in 12 different languages covered by a newsroom located in Berlin. In 2019, OneFootball partnered up with Eleve ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, as their football news anchorman and lead content creator. By the end of year, Allen presented his first international documentary about the history of

Blackface Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used predominantly by non-Black people to portray a caricature of a Black person. In the United States, the practice became common during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereo ...

and The Netherlands'

SinterKlaas Sinterklaas () or Sint-Nicolaas () is a legendary figure based on Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children. Other Dutch names for the figure include ''De Sint'' ("The Saint"), ''De Goede Sint'' ("The Good Saint") and ''De Goedheiligman'' ("The ...

children's character

Zwarte Piet Zwarte Piet (; lb, Schwaarze Péiter, fy, Swarte Pyt), also known in English by the translated name Black Pete, is the companion of Saint Nicholas ( nl, Sinterklaas, fy, Sinteklaas, lb, Kleeschen) in the folklore of the Low Countries. The ...

aka 'Black Pete'. Allen also appeared on

TalkRADIO TalkRadio (previously styled as talkRADIO) is a talk radio station broadcasting nationally in the United Kingdom, which was relaunched on 21 March 2016. Based in London and owned by Wireless Group, a subsidiary of News Corp., it is the sist ...

as a co-host of the

Penny Smith Penelope Jane Smith (born 21 September 1958) is an English author, television presenter, newsreader and radio presenter. She has presented for Sky News, GMTV, Classic FM, BBC Radio London, TalkRadio and is a regular contributor to TalkTV la ...

morning radio show.

Personal life

Allen has written for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' about racism in society and has had hundreds of thousands of views of his own blogging sit
Antoinespeaks.co.uk.
He has no children and lives in London. In 2013, Allen set a world record for most electrical energy generated by pedalling a bicycle in one minute, after creating a remarkable 16200 joules.

References

1987 births Living people Alumni of King's College London British television presenters People from Northampton {{Improve categories, date=May 2021