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Born in [[Durham, North Carolina]], son of a merchant Thomas Ellis Allen and Harriet Moore, he attended [[Duke University]]—then known as Trinity College—graduating in 1924<ref name="archive">{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/chanticleerseria1924duke#page/34/mode/2up|title=The Chanticleer [serial]|access-date=2015-10-18}}</ref> and from [[Harvard University]] in 1929.<ref name="nndb">{{cite web|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/614/000121251/|title=George V. Allen|publisher=nndb.com|access-date=2015-10-18}}</ref> He worked briefly as a high school teacher between 1924 and 1928 and as a newspaper reporter for the ''Asheville Times'' and ''Durham Herald''.
He joined the [[United States Foreign Service|Foreign Service]] in 1930 working first as vice consul in [[Kingston, Jamaica]] and later in [[Shanghai|Shanghai, China]]; [[Patras|Patras, Greece]]; and [[Cairo|Cairo, Egypt]]. He served as [[List of ambassadors of the United States to Iran|U.S. Ambassador to [[Iran]] from 1946 to 1948. During this period he worked on preventing a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]]-[[Iran]] oil agreement and led to the Iranian prime minister [[Ahmad Qavam]] dropping communist cabinet members. He also helped build ties with Shah [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi|Mohammed Reza Pahlavi]], playing weekly tennis matches with the monarch. He served as [[Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs]] from 1948 to 1949, [[List of ambassadors of the United States to Yugoslavia|U.S. Ambassador to Yugoslavia]] from 1949 to 1953, [[United States Ambassador to India]] and [[List of ambassadors of the United States to Nepal|Nepal]] 1953–1954. While in [[India]] he, along with [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], supported India's rival [[Pakistan]] with military support as a deterrent against Soviet relations with India. He then served as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern, South Asian, and African Affairs from 1953 to 1954, [[List of ambassadors of the United States to Greece|U.S. Ambassador to Greece]] 1956–1957, and Director of the [[U.S. Information Agency]] from 1957 to 1960.<ref>{{cite book|title=American National Biography|author=Merrill, D.|year=2000|chapter=Allen, George Venable (1903-1970), diplomat|doi=10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.0700005}}</ref> In 1960, Allen was named [[Career Ambassador]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=George Venable Allen |url=https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/allen-george-venable |website=Office of the Historian}}</ref>
Allen was president of the [[Tobacco Institute]] from 1960 to 1966.<ref>
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