Kenny Ortega Biography

Kenneth John "Kenny" Ortega (born April 18, 1950) is an American film and television producer, director, and choreographer, best known for directing Hocus Pocus, the High School Musical trilogy and Michael Jackson's This Is It concerts.

Life and career

Ortega was born in Palo Alto, California. He is the son of Madeline, a waitress, and Octavio "Tibby" Ortega, a factory worker from Redwood City. His grandparents were from Spain. Initially known for working with dancer and choreographer Gene Kelly on the film Xanadu, Ortega went on to choreographing the dance for the Menudo video "Hold Me", as well as the 1987 film Dirty Dancing, and has won awards for choreography in music videos, such as Madonna's "Material Girl". He also worked with The Tubes on their stage shows and directed the video for She's a Beauty.

Ortega directed Billy Squier's "Rock Me Tonite" video, which is often cited as the worst music promo clip ever made and has been blamed by Squier for killing his career. Together with Michael Jackson, he created and designed the Dangerous World Tour 1992-1993 and the HIStory World Tour 1996-1997. He has also choreographed events ranging from Super Bowl XXX, the 72nd Academy Awards, the 1996 Summer Olympics (Atlanta) and the 2002 Winter Olympics (Salt Lake City).

In addition, Ortega has directed and choreographed High School Musical, High School Musical 2, High School Musical 3: Senior Year, and was choreographer of the The Cheetah Girls 2.

On January 30, 2008, Ortega presented director-choreographer Adam Shankman with a Lifetime Achievement Award at The Carnival: Choreographer's Ball 9th anniversary show.

In May 2009, Ortega began work on the scheduled Michael Jackson 50-date This Is It concerts, which was cancelled subsequent to Jackson's sudden death. 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, which was broadcast live on several networks on July 7, 2009. It reached a television audience of 31 million in America, and more than 1 billion worldwide and via the internet. 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 2011 Footloose remake, but dropped out in October 2009. Ortega is now set to direct the upcoming movie adaptation of the Broadway musical In the Heights.

On August 9, 2011, it was announced that Ortega will direct a remake of Dirty Dancing, which he choreographed in 1987. Lionsgate Films has yet to announce the release date.

Filmography and concerts

Film
Year	Title	Notes	Rotten Tomatoes rating	Budget	Gross
1980	Xanadu	Choreographer	39%	$20 million	$22,762,571
1985	St. Elmo's Fire	Choreographer	47%	N/A	$37,803,672
1986	Pretty in Pink	Choreographer	81%	N/A	$40,471,663
	Ferris Bueller's Day Off	Choreographer	84%	$6 million	$70,136,369
1987	Dirty Dancing	Choreographer	68%	$6 million	$213,954,274
1988	Salsa	Choreographer	50%	Usuk	$8,892,589
1989	Shag	Choreographer	64%	N/A	$6,957,975
1992	Newsies	Choreographer, Director	30%	$15 million	$2,819,485
1993	Hocus Pocus	Director	32%	$28 million	$39,514,713
1995	To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar	Choreographer	42%	N/A	$47,774,193
1998	Quest for Camelot	Choreographer	36%	$40 million	$22,510,798
2006	High School Musical	Choreographer, Director	56%	$4.4 million	N/A
2006	The Cheetah Girls 2	Choreographer, Director	N/A	N/A	N/A
2007	High School Musical 2	Choreographer, Director	57%	$7 million	N/A
2008	High School Musical 3: Senior Year	Choreographer, Director	65%	$11 million	$252,909,177
2008	Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert	Choreographer	71%	$7 million	$70,642,036
2009	Michael Jackson's This Is It	Choreographer, Director	81%	$60 million	$261,183,588
2011	In the Heights	Director	N/A	N/A	N/A
2013	Dirty Dancing remake (pre-production)	Director	N/A	N/A	N/A

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	Ally McBeal	Director, 3 episodes
2002"2006	Gilmore Girls	Director, 11 episodes
2011	Phineas and Ferb	Guest star, 1 episode
2012	Bunheads	Director, 1 episode

Concerts
Year	Title	Notes
1989"1990	Cher's Heart of Stone Tour	Director
1992"1993	Michael Jackson's Dangerous World Tour	Director
1996"1997	Michael Jackson's HIStory World Tour"	Director
2003"2004	Gloria Estefan's Live & Unwrapped	Show Director and Choreographer
2006"2007	High School Musical: The Concert"	Director
2007"2008	Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Tour"	Director, Choreographer
2009"2010	Michael Jackson's This Is It concerts	Director

Movies

Year	Title	Role
2012	Mario	Mario
	The Revenge Rampage	Paul Thomas Paw
2013	Spies	Puncher John

Awards

Year	Award	Category
2008	ALMA Award	Special Achievement Award " Outstanding Director
2009	National Association of Latino Independent Producers	Outstanding Achievement Award
	30th Young Artist Awards	Jackie Coogan Award - Contribution to Youth