Kenny Ortega

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Kenny Ortega
Born	Kenneth John Ortega April 18, 1950 (1950-04-18) (age 59) Palo Alto, California, U.S.
Occupation	Television and film director, producer, choreographer
Years active	1980–present
Official website

Kenneth John "Kenny" Ortega (born April 18, 1950) is an American producer, director, and choreographer. He is known for directing the High School Musical series and Michael Jackson's "This Is It" Tour.^[1]

Contents 1 Life and career 2 Filmography and concerts 3 Awards 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Life and career

Ortega was born in Palo Alto, California. His paternal grandparents were Spanish.^[2] Initially known for working with dancer and choreographer Gene Kelly on the film Xanadu, Ortega went on to choreographing the 1987 film Dirty Dancing, and has won awards for choreography in music videos, such as Madonna's "Material Girl". Ortega directed Billy Squier's "Rock Me Tonite" video. Together with Michael Jackson, he created and designed the Dangerous World Tour 1992-1993 and the HIStory World Tour 1996-1997. He choreographed major events such as Super Bowl XXX, the 72nd Academy Awards, the 1996 Summer Olympics (Atlanta) and the 2002 Winter Olympics (Salt Lake City).^[3] In addition to choreography, Ortega has directed High School Musical, High School Musical 2, High School Musical 3: Senior Year, and was choreographer of the The Cheetah Girls 2.

In May 2009, Ortega began work on the scheduled Michael Jackson 50-date This Is It concert tour, which was cancelled subsequent to Jackson's sudden death.^[4] He directed the concert film Michael Jackson's This Is It which was put together from rehearsal footage recorded at the Los Angeles Forum and the Staples Center. The film was released on October 28.

Ortega directed the Michael Jackson Public Memorial at the Staples Center in Los Angeles memorial service, which was broadcast live on several networks on July 7, 2009. It reached a television audience of 31 million in America, and hundreds of millions more worldwide and via the internet.^[5] At the end of the service, he introduced a rendition of Jackson's 1985 charity single "We Are the World" created for the This Is It concerts, featuring Jackson's backing singers on lead vocals with his dancers performing around them.

He was set to direct the Footloose remake starring Gossip Girl actor, Chace Crawford, but dropped out in October 2009.^[6]

In 2008 Ortega was regarded as one of the most powerful and influential Hispanics in entertainment.^[7]

[edit] Filmography and concerts

Film
Year	Film	Notes
1985	St. Elmo's Fire	Choreographer
1986	Pretty in Pink	Choreographer
	Ferris Bueller's Day Off	Choreographer
1987	Dirty Dancing	Choreographer
1988	Salsa	Choreographer
1989	Shag	Choreographer
1992	Newsies	Choreographer, Director
1993	Hocus Pocus	Director
1995	To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar	Choreographer
2006	High School Musical	Choreographer, Director
2006	The Cheetah Girls 2	Choreographer, Director
2007	High School Musical 2	Choreographer, Director
2008	High School Musical 3: Senior Year	Choreographer, Director
2008	Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert	Choreographer
2009	Michael Jackson's This Is It	Choreographer, Director
Television
Year	Title	Notes
1988	Dirty Dancing	Director, 2 episodes
1990	Hull High	Choreographer, director, 2 episodes
1996	Second Noah	Director, 1 episode
1998-1999	Chicago Hope	Director, 2 episodes
2000	Resurrection Blvd.	Director, 1 episode
2001	Grounded for Life	Director, 1 episode
2001-2001	Ally McBeal	Director, 3 episodes
2002-2006	Gilmore Girls	Director, 12 episodes
Concerts
Year	Title	Notes
1992-1993	Michael Jackson's Dangerous World Tour	Director
1996-1997	Michael Jackson's HIStory World Tour"	Director
2006~2007	High School Musical: The Concert"	Director
2009	Michael Jackson's This Is It Tour	Director

[edit] Awards

Year	Award	Category
2008	ALMA Award	Special Achievement Award – Outstanding Director[8][9]
2009	National Association of Latino Independent Producers	Outstanding Achievement Award[10]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Kenny Ortega at the Internet Broadway Database
• Kenny Ortega at the Internet Movie Database
• Kenny Ortega at MySpace

v • d • e Films directed by Kenny Ortega Newsies (1992) • Hocus Pocus (1993) • High School Musical (2006) • The Cheetah Girls 2 (2006) • High School Musical 2 (2007) • High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008) • Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009)

v • d • e Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography Jim Moore / George Pinney / Jon Vanderkolff (2001) · Doug Jack / Sarah Kawahara / Kenny Ortega / Debra Brown (2002) · Sandra Bezic / A.C. Ciulla / Christopher Dean / Jamie Isley / Michael Seibert (2003) · Jason Samuels Smith (2004) · Christopher Dean (2005) · Charles Klapow / Kenny Ortega / Bonnie Story (2006) · Wade Robson / Mia Michaels / Rob Marshall / John Deluca (2007) · Wade Robson (2008) · Rob Ashford / Tyce Diorio (2009) Complete list: (1955–1975) · (1976–2000) · (2001–present)

Persondata
NAME	Ortega, Kenny
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Ortega, Kenneth John
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Television and film director, producer, choreographer
DATE OF BIRTH	April 18, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH	Palo Alto, California, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH

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