Welcome to Lily Allen Galleries

Lily Allen was born in Hammersmith, west London, daughter of Welsh-born comedian Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen. She and her family eventually settled in the North London borough of Islington. She has an older sister, Sarah; a younger brother, Alfie Owen-Allen (who was the subject of her song "Alfie"); and a younger sister Rebecca. She also has a number of half-siblings. Lily Allen lived for a while with comedian Harry Enfield while her mother dated him. She is the god-daughter of Wild Colonials vocalist Angela McCluskey and is also the god-daughter of late Clash singer and guitarist, Joe Strummer. Allen had been to 13 different schools from the age of 8-15 since Allen never could have long lasting friendships instead she wrote music and listened to jazz and hip-hop.

In 1988, Allen appeared on The Comic Strip Presents... episode "The Yob", which her father had co-written. When Allen was four years old, her father left the family. Allen claims to have grown up with her mother in a working class environment, living in a council house environment for most of her childhood. This seems at odds with the fact that she attended some of the UK's costliest public schools; Allen attended 13 schools in all, including Prince Charles's junior alma mater, Hill House School, Millfield and Bedales School, and was expelled from several of them for drinking, and smoking.

Allen told Loveline that at age 11 she was singing an Oasis tune in the schoolyard when a teacher overheard her and told her she had talent and suggested she do something with it. She took singing lessons with the teacher. She sang at a school play and claimed that the audience was brought to tears at the sight of a troubled young girl doing something good. At that point Allen said she knew that music was something she needed to do either as a lifelong vocation or to get it out of her system. She became a member of the Groucho Club at the age of 17 and in her free time, she listened to artists such as The Specials, T.Rex, and Happy Mondays.

Allen made an appearance as a lady-in-waiting in the 1998 film Elizabeth, co-produced by her mother, Alison Owen. She dropped out of school at age fifteen, not wanting to "spend a third of her life preparing to work for the next third of her life, to set herself up with a pension for the next third of her life." After her family went to Ibiza on holiday Allen told her mother that she was staying with friends but remained in Sant Antoni de Portmany instead. She earned money by working at a Plastic Fantastic record store and dealing in ecstasy