Adam Shenkman: biography of the director and photo

Adam Shenkman is a real Hollywood man orchestra. He is known not only as a successful director of the most high-budget paintings, but also as an actor, producer, dancer, television judge and choreographer. His biography is quite unusual for a man born in a Jewish family, referring 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 concealed his sexual orientation and was seen in fleeting connections 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 father Ned Shenkman was a lawyer and manager in the entertainment industry. Adam was the first child in the family, and when he was 4 years old, his sister Jennifer was born.

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

The beginning of a career in show business

While still a schoolboy, Adam Shenkman began to dance in the prestigious Children's Theater Company. This fascination soon became for him the main thing in life, and after a short study at Juilliard College, he decided to leave him to perform in his first professional musical show "West Side Story" on the stage of the famous Michigan opera house.

Career choreographer

After the completion of his first contract, Adam Shenkman returned to Los Angeles and joined the dance group in the filming of video clips of well-known performers of the 80s, such as Paul Abdul and Janet Jackson.

An interesting story happened to the director in 1989, when he took a risky step: he proposed choreography for the first clip of the rapper MC Shan, directed by Julien Temple. At the same time, 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 show and clips of Whitney Houston, Aaron Neville and many others.

On TV

In 1996, Adam Shenkman won the Bob Foss Award for Best Choreography in Advertising. His career in television began to take shape. In particular, he worked on the famous television series "Friends" and "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." After that, Shenkman was invited as a choreographer to work in dozens of paintings, including "The Adams Family", "George of the Jungle", "Catch Me If You Can" and "Boogie Nights".

Debut in Directing

In 1998, Adam Shenkman (director) wrote his first screenplay and shot a short film without dialogues, entitled "The Tale of Cosmo". The picture was presented at the Sundance 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 become director of the painting "Wedding Planner" with Matthew Mack Konahi and Jennifer Lopez, which was very warmly received by the audience.

Further career

Successful cooperation with his sister led to the fact that Adam Shenkman, whose films are enjoyed with pleasure in different parts of the world, decided to start creating pictures for family leisure. The next success of the joint work of this related tandem were pictures of "Tales for the Night", "Pope Again 17" and "Step Forward".

In 2003, Shenkman and Gibgot founded their own company, Offspring Entertainment. Soon she signed an agreement with the studio "Disney". As a result, there were such pictures as "Bald Nanny: Spetszzadanie", in which the main role went to Vin Diesel, as well as the family comedy "Wholesale cheaper 2" with Bonnie Hunt and Steve Martin.

"Step forward"

The production flair of Jennifer Gibgot told her that it was a sin to neglect the choreographic capabilities of his brother. In this connection, in the mid-2000s Adam Shenkman (photo above) again began to create dance hits. His first projects in this sphere were the musical youth melodrama "Step Forward" and its sequel.

In 2007, Adam and Jennifer produced the musical hit "Hairspray". The main roles in it were performed by John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Queen Latifah, Christopher Walken, Nikki Blonsky and Zac Efron.

The painting was nominated for several awards, including a nomination for the prestigious Golden Globe Award for the best musical film. In addition, in March 2008, "Hairspray" took the third place in the list of the highest-grossing American musicals in the previous 30 years.

Musical "Hair"

In 2014, the director took up the implementation of a new project. It was the remake of the psychedelic musical "Hair" written more than half a century ago by G. McDermott, J. Redo and J. Ragni. This is one of the most famous products of the hippie movement of the 1960s. The premiere of the new version took place in the concert hall "Hollywood Bowl". On the leading roles were invited to such stars of Hollywood as Benjamin Walker, Kristen Bell, Parrish Henter and others.

The film "Pope Again 17"

This picture, filmed in 2009, is another joint producer of Shenkman and Gibgot. It was directed by Burr Stirs, and Zach Efron, Leslie Mann, Matthew Perry, Michelle Trachtenberg, Thomas Lennon, etc. were invited to the main roles. In 2015, Warner Brosers and Theater Ventures implemented a joint project to create a musical version of the film "Pope Again 17" To work on which was invited Shenkman. His work again received high praise from the audience.

Adam Shenkman: Filmography

Among the most successful films of the director are:

• "Wedding Trouble" (2001);
• "Hurry to love" (2002);
• "Detective Monk" (11 episodes) and "House upside down" (2003);
• "Wholesale cheaper than 2" (2005);
• "The worst weekend of my life" (2006);
• "Hairspray" (2007);
• Prop 8: The Musical and "Fairy Tales for the Night" (2008);
• "American Family" (36 episodes), "Choir", "Rock for ages" (2010), etc.

In addition, Shenkman acted as the director of the 82nd Academy Awards ceremony.

As for his production activities, his works include:

• "Step forward" (2006);
• "Presentiment" (2007);
• "Step Up 2: The Streets" (2008);
• "The Pope is again 17" (2009);
• "Step Up 3D", "The Last Song" and "At a Distance of Love" (2010);
• "Rock for ages" (2012);
• "All or Nothing (Step Forward)" (2014).

Personal life

Adam Shenkman never concealed that he was gay. Among those who were listed in his friends, you can meet very unexpected names. In particular, it is rumored that he maintained close relations with the then very young Chenning Thatum. At the same time, in 2009, the Network received pictures of Adam in an embrace with Miley Cyrus. True, they were innocent enough, although they aroused a storm of indignation at the father of the young star.

Now you know a lot about the work of American director, producer and choreographer Adam Shenkman, who continues to delight the audience around the world with his bright musical and film projects.