Life and career

Ortega was born in Palo Alto, California. He attended Sequoia High School (Redwood City, California). Ortega 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 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, a project that was later postponed.

On May 12, 2014, Ortega guest-judged on the 18th season of Dancing with the Stars during the semifinals.

In 2014, Ortega signed with Disney to direct Descendants, a new Disney Channel Original Movie. It was released July 31, 2015.

Filmography and concerts

Film
Year	Title	Role	Rotten Tomatoes rating	Budget	Gross
1980	Xanadu	Choreographer	39%	$20 million	$22,762,571
1985	St. Elmo's Fire		47%	$10 million	$37,803,672
1986	Pretty in Pink		81%	$9 million	$40,471,663
1986	Ferris Bueller's Day Off		79%	$6 million	$70,136,369
1987	Dirty Dancing		68%	$6 million	$213,954,274
1988	Salsa		50%	N/A	$8,892,589
1989	Shag		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		36%	$40 million	$22,510,798
2008	High School Musical 3: Senior Year	Director, Executive Producer, Choreographer	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	Director, Producer	81%	$60 million	$261,183,588

Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1988	Dirty Dancing	Director	2 episodes
1990	Hull High	Choreographer, director	2 episodes
1996	Second Noah	Director	1 episode
1998-99	Chicago Hope		2 episodes
2000	Resurrection Blvd.		1 episode
2001	Grounded for Life		1 episode
2001-02	Ally McBeal		3 episodes
2002-06	Gilmore Girls		11 episodes
2006	High School Musical	Choreographer, Director	Television movie (budget: $4.4 million)
2006	The Cheetah Girls 2		Television movie
2007	High School Musical 2		Television movie (budget: $7 million)
2012	Bunheads	Director	1 episode
2015	Descendants	Choreographer, Director	Television movie
2017	Descendants 2	Choreographer, Director	Television movie

Concerts
Year	Title	Notes
1989-90	Cher's Heart of Stone Tour	Director
1991-92	Gloria Estefan's Into The Light World Tour	Choreographer
1992-93	Michael Jackson's Dangerous World Tour	Director
1996-97	Gloria Estefan's Evolution World Tour	Choreographer
1996-97	Michael Jackson's HIStory World Tour"	Director
2003	Gloria Estefan's Live & Unwrapped	Show Director and Choreographer
2004	Gloria Estefan's Live & Re-Wrapped Tour	Choreographer
2006-07	High School Musical: The Concert"	Director
2007-08	Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Tour"	Director, Choreographer
2009-10 (cancelled)	Michael Jackson's This Is It concerts	Director

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

[ Source: Wikipedia ]