Candace Allen is a writer, director and screenwriter. She studied at Harvard and the New York University School of Film & Television, and went on to become the first African-American female member of the Directors Guild of America.

Candace’s first novel, Valaida, was based on the life of entertainer and jazz trumpeter Valaida Snow. Consequent to her campaign-long commitment to the election of Barack Obama she became a newspaper and broadcast commentator on American politics, race and culture.  A second book, Soul Music:  Meditations on Music and Cultural Identity was published by Gibson Square Books in 2012.

Candace writes regularly for the Guardian, and is now based primarily in London.