Adam Shenkman: director's biography and photos

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:47

Adam Shankman is a real Hollywood orchestra man. He is known not only as a successful director of the highest budget films, but also as an actor, producer, dancer, television judge and choreographer. His biography is rather unusual for a man born into a Jewish family, belonging to the cream of the American middle class. However, despite all the fears of relatives, Shenkman managed to achieve success, which can only be envied. At the same time, he never hid his sexual orientation and was seen in fleeting relationships with half of the "blue" Hollywood.

Adam Shenkman: biography, early years

The future director was born in Los Angeles in 1964. His mother, Phyllis (nee Pepper), had a private practice as a psychotherapist, and his father, Ned Shankman, was a lawyer and business manager in the entertainment industry. Adam was the first child in the family, and when he was 4 years old, hissister Jennifer.

He graduated from Palisades High School and enrolled in one of the largest institutions of higher education in the US in the field of art and music - the New York Juilliard School.

The beginning of a career in show business

Even as a schoolboy, Adam Shankman began dancing with the prestigious Children's Theater Company. This hobby soon became the main thing in his life for him, and after a short study at Juilliard College, he decided to leave it to perform in his first professional show - the musical "West Side Story" on the stage of the famous Michigan Opera House.

Choreographer career

After the completion of his first contract, Adam Shankman returned to Los Angeles and began to participate in the group of backup dancers in the filming of music videos for famous artists of the 80s, such as Paula Abdul and Janet Jackson.

An interesting story happened to the director in 1989, when he took a risky step: he offered to choreograph the first music video for rapper MC Shan, directed by Julien Temple. However, he lied, saying that he had already worked in this field for Jackson and Abdul. As you know, the winners are not judged, so after a successful debut, he was invited as a choreographer for the shows and videos of Whitney Houston, Aaron Neville and many others.

On TV

In 1996, Adam Shankman won the Bob Fosse Award for Best Commercial Choreography. His career in television began to take shape. In particular, he worked on the famoustelevision series Friends and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Following this, Shankman was invited as a choreographer to work on dozens of films, including The Addams Family, George of the Jungle, Catch Me If You Can and Boogie Nights.

Debut in directing

In 1998, Adam Shankman (director) wrote his first script and made a short film based on it without dialogue, called "Cosmo's Tale". The picture was presented at the Sundance Film Festival and was a success.

By that time, Adam's sister Jennifer Gibgot was already the head of the production company Tapestry. She invited him to direct The Wedding Planner with Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Lopez, which was very warmly received by the audience.

Further career

Successful cooperation with his sister led to the fact that Adam Shankman, whose films are watched with pleasure in different parts of the world, decided to start creating films for family leisure. The next successful joint works of this kindred tandem were the paintings "Bedtime Stories", "Papa is 17 Again" and "Step Up".

In 2003, Shankman and Gibgot founded their own company, Offspring Entertainment. Soon, the Disney studio signed an agreement with her. The result was films such as The Bald Babysitter Special, starring Vin Diesel, and the family comedy Cheaper 2, starring Bonnie Hunt and Steve Martin.

Step forward

Producer flairJennifer Gibgot told her that it is a sin to neglect the choreographic capabilities of her brother. In this regard, in the mid-2000s, Adam Shenkman (see photo above) again began to create dance hits. His first projects in this area were the musical youth melodrama Step Forward and its sequel.

In 2007, Adam and Jennifer produced the hit song "Hairspray". It stars John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Queen Latifah, Christopher Walken, Nikki Blonsky and Zac Efron.

The film was nominated for several awards, including a nomination for the prestigious Golden Globe Award for Best Musical Film. In addition, in March 2008, "Hairspray" ranked 3 on the list of highest-grossing American musicals of the previous 30 years.

Hair Musical

In 2014, the director took on the implementation of a new project. It was a production-remake of the psychedelic musical "Hair", written more than half a century ago by G. McDermot, J. Redo and J. Ranyi. It is one of the most famous products of the 1960s hippie movement. The new version premiered at the Hollywood Bowl. Hollywood stars such as Benjamin Walker, Kristen Bell, Parrish Henter and others were invited to play leading roles.

Film "Papa is 17 Again"

This picture, taken in 2009, is another collaboration between Shankman and Gibgot. It was directed by Burr Steers and starred Zac Efron, Leslie Mann, Matthew Perry, Michelle Trachtenberg, ThomasLennon et al. In 2015, Warner Brosers and Theater Ventures collaborated to create a musical version of Dad's 17 Again, for which Shankman was brought in. His work was again highly appreciated by the audience.

Adam Shenkman: filmography

The director's most successful films include:

• Wedding Planner (2001);
• "Hurry to Love" (2002);
• "Detective Monk" (episode 11) and "Upside Down House" (2003);
• Cheaper in Wholesale 2 (2005);
• "The Worst Weekend of My Life" (2006);
• "Hairspray" (2007);
• Prop 8: The Musical and Bedtime Stories (2008);
• Modern Family (episode 36), Glee, Rock of the Ages (2010) and more

Also, Shankman directed the 82nd Academy Awards.

As for his production activity, among his works it should be noted:

• Step Up (2006);
• Premonition (2007);
• Step Up 2: The Streets (2008);
• "Papa is 17 Again" (2009);
• "Step Up 3D", "Last Song" and "In the Distance of Love" (2010);
• "Rock of Ages" (2012);
• “All or Nothing (Step Up)” (2014).

Private life

Adam Shankman has never hidden that he is gay. Among those who were listed among his friends, one can meet very unexpected names. In particular, they say that he maintained a close relationship with the then-young Channing Tatum. At the same time, in 2009,The network got pictures of Adam cuddling with Miley Cyrus. True, they were innocent enough, although they caused an uproar from the father of the young star.

Now you know a lot about the work of American director, producer and choreographer Adam Shankman, who continues to delight audiences around the world with his vibrant music and film projects.