His mother was Martha Dick (AKA Marty Dick), a community-service worker who remarried her high-school sweetheart, an Episcopalian deacon, two years after Tim's father's death. Tim also has a total of eight siblings. When Tim was young his family moved to Birmingham, Michigan, USA (a suburb of Detroit). Allen graduated from Western Michigan University in 1975 with a degree in TV production, and went to work as a creative director for a small advertising firm in Detroit. Soon he moved from behind the camera to in front of it as a performer and commercial spokesman. In 1979, on a dare from a friend, Tim made his first stand-up appearance at Detroit's Comedy Castle. Since then, he has sold out concert venues around the country and appeared in several cable specials: The Montreal Just For Laughs Festival, Showtime Comedy Club All-Stars VII, and two of his own half-hour specials for Showtime: Men are Pigs, and Tim Allen Rewires America. In 1990 Tim won an ACE Award for Best Performance in a Comedy Special at the Just For Laughs International Comedy Festival in Montreal. In 1991 Tim was nominated for a People' Choice Award for Favorite Male Performer in a Television Series which he won in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999 and won a People's Choice Award for Home Improvement for Funniest Television Series. Tim has won Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards in the categories of Favorite TV Actor and the coveted Kids Choice Hall of Fame and has also been awarded the title of America's Favorite TV Personality for the three years in a row by the Harris Poll. In 1995, Tim won a Golden Globe Award as Funniest Actor in a Television Series for his role on Home Improvement and was again nominated in 1996 in the same category. In addition to winning awards, Tim was one of the co-hosts at the 1992 Emmy Awards and has been nominated once for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series.

In 1994, Tim made his motion picture debut in the Hollywood Pictures/Disney film The Santa Clause, starring as Santa himself. The movie was released in November 1994 and was the number one comedy of the year. For his role in the film, Tim was honored with a Blockbuster Entertainment Award as Favorite Male Newcomer, Theatrical and a People's Choice Award as Funniest Actor In A Comedy Motion Picture. The Santa Clause was voted Favorite Motion Picture Comedy at the People's Choice Awards that same year. Tim's second film was the blockbuster hit Toy Story, the first film to ever be entirely animated using computers. Tim was the voice of spaceman action figure Buzz Lightyear. Tim then went on to star in the Disney hit film, Jungle 2 Jungle, which was released in March of 1997 and in November of 1997 Tim was seen starring in Universal Pictures' For Richer Or Poorer with Kirstie Alley. In 1994, Tim penned his anecdotes in his first book entitled Don't Stand Too Close to a Naked Man, which topped the New York Times Bestseller List. Tim's second book, I'm Not Really Here, hit bookstores in November of 1996. In this book, we find Tim looking for the hood ornament of a car one weekend, and instead stumbling across the meaning of life. He takes a comedic look at men in midlife - and their relationships with wives, children, friends, the universe and God. Tim was seen for eight seasons as Tim Taylor on ABC's Home Improvement, where he brought his unique slant of masculinity to series television. Home Improvement, which Tim describes as Men Are Pigs at home, continues to be a success in syndication.