From: Beckley, West Virginia. LA Opera: The Barber of Seville (2023, debut).
Rob Ashford is a Tony Award, Olivier Award, Emmy Award, Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award winning director and choreographer. Broadway theater credits include Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Frozen, Evita, How To Succeed, Promises, Promises, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Shrek, John Water's Cry Baby, Curtains and The Wedding Singer. London theater credits include The Entertainer, Romeo and Juliet, The Winter's Tale and Harlequinade all for the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company, the Olivier Award winning productions of Anna Christie, A Streetcar Named Desire and Parade for the Donmar Warehouse, Macbeth at MIF and Park Ave Armory, Guys and Dolls, Evita and Frozen.
He directed and choreographed Peter Pan Live! and The Sound of Music Live! for NBC, both receiving DGA Award nominations, and he has directed and choreographed productions for Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, English National Opera and La Scala. He choreographed and staged the 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2009 Academy Awards, winning the Emmy for Best Choreography for his work on Baz Luhrmann's 2009 Academy Awards production number featuring Hugh Jackman and Beyoncé.
He has staged the Tony Awards for eight years, and has also staged tributes at the Kennedy Center Honors for Barbra Streisand, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jerry Herman, Barbara Cook, Tom Hanks, Shirley MacLaine and Meryl Streep. Films include choreography for Death On The Nile, Murder On the Orient Express, Disney's Cinderella, Ted 2, A Million Ways to Die in the West and Beyond The Sea.
