Kenny Ortega

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BIRTHDAY

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Palo Alto, CA

RECENT CREDITS

Michael Jackson's This Is It (FILM) Oct. 28, 2009

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

Gilmore Girls (TV) Nov. 28, 2006

Hocus Pocus (FILM) Jul. 16, 1993

Newsies (FILM) Apr. 10, 1992

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BIOGRAPHY

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California-born dancer and choreographer Kenny Ortega had stage and television experience before working on his first feature film, The Rose (1979) and the Olivia Newton-John/Gene Kelly disco-era musical Xanadu (1980). During the '80s, he was associated with some of the biggest hits of the decade, especially among "youth" movies of the period -- One from the Heart (1982), St. Elmo's Fire (1985), Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off (both 1986), and the monster hit Dirty Dancing (1987). After co-producing Salsa (1988), he turned to directing with Newsies, the Disney organization's ill-fated 1992 attempt to revive the movie-musical genre, and Hocus Pocus (1993). Though Ortega would continue to serve as a choreographer in film and television thought the 1990s (including To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar), his career was geared increasingly towards directing for television during the millennial turnover, with frequent work in such popular series' as Chicago Hope, Grounded for Life, Ally McBeal, and The Gilmore Girls comprising the majority of his credits. After scoring a direct hit in 1996 as both choreographer and director of High School Musical (the higest rated movie in Disney Channel history at the time), Ortega would step back behind the camera to tell the tale of a group of young female singers determined to make the big-time in the musical comedy @Disney Channel sequel The Cheetah Girls 2.

~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

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Headlines

Coens' 'True Grit' Rides to X-mas Day; 'Footloose' Release Unk...

Jan. 20, 2010

Paramount Pictures will release Joel and Ethan Coen's remake 'True Grit' on Christmas Day 2010. The studio's remake of 'Footloose,' however, has fallen off the calendar,

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Celeb Quotes of the Week

Posted: Nov. 1, 2009

'This Is It' Boss Defends Decision to Exclude Jackson's Death

Posted: Oct. 29, 2009

This is It London Premiere

Posted: Oct. 28, 2009

Ortega Quits 'Footloose'

Posted: Oct. 26, 2009

Will Michael Jackson's This is It be a hit for Sony?

Posted: Oct. 22, 2009

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