Kenny Ortega

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BIRTHDAY

April 18, 1950

Palo Alto, California, United States

RECENT CREDITS

High School Musical 3: Senior Year (FILM) Oct. 24, 2008

High School Musical: Get in the Pic... (TV) Sep. 8, 2008

Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best ... (FILM) Feb. 1, 2008

High School Musical 2 (TV) Aug. 17, 2007

High School Musical: The Concert (TV) May. 4, 2007

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BIOGRAPHY

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Former stage musical performer who turned to choreography in the 1980s, orchestrating stage shows for Cher, Bette Midler and Kiss, and glitzy TV specials for such pop celebrities as Cher, Olivia Newton-John and Neil Diamond. Ortega's energetic choreography shaped the way teens moved in 1980s films, from the Olivia Newton-John musical "Xanadu" (1980), to the John Hughes films "St. Elmo's Fire" (1985), "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (1986, for which he handled the "Twist and Shout" sequence) and "Pretty in Pink" (1986), to the steamy dance movie of the decade, "Dirty Dancing" (1987). He made his feature directing debut with the expensive Disney box-office flop "Newsies" (1992), an old-fashioned musical about the newspaper boys' strike of the 1930s, and followed up with "Hocus Pocus" (1993), a Disney comedy-adventure pitting a group of children against three reincarnated witches from the days of old Salem. Ortega is a pioneer in music video choreography, having worked on projects for Billy Joel, Elton John, Diana Ross, Madonna ("Material Girl") and others.

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