Kristin Hanggi (born: Murrieta Valley, California) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter; and theater director best known for the 2009

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

musical '' Rock of Ages''. The

jukebox musical A jukebox musical is a stage musical or musical film in which a majority of the songs are well-known popular music songs, rather than original music. Some jukebox musicals use a wide variety of songs, while others confine themselves to songs perf ...

received five

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...

nominations, including a nomination for Best Direction of a Musical. She has also directed two national tours, and West End, Australia, Toronto, and Las Vegas productions.

Personal life

Hanggi graduated with a Masters from the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

after receiving her bachelor's degree in Theater from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

(UCLA). In June 2013, she returned to her alma mater when she received the UCLA School of Theater, Film, & Television Distinguished Alumni Award. In 2012 she was living in Manhattan, New York City

Career

Theater

Hanggi's stage productions include the Los Angeles and New York productions of '' Bare: A Pop Opera''. '' Bare'' and Hanggi won the

Ovation Award The Ovation Awards are a Southern California award for excellence in theatre, established in 1989. They are given out by the non-profit arts service organization LA Stage Alliance and are the only peer-judged theatre awards in Los Angeles. Winne ...

for Best Musical, '' LA Weekly'' Award for Best Musical, and Robby Award for Best Director. In January 2018, it was announced that she would adapt the musical into a feature film. Other works include ''And the Curtain Rises'' at the Signature Theatre; ''Catch The Fish'', winner of the New York's Fringe Festival; ''Twelfth Premise'', a ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' Critic's Pick; the Los Angeles premiere of Terrence McNally's '' Corpus Christi'', winner of the Ticketholder Award for Best Production and Best Director, and Robby Award for Best Director of a Play; ''Crane, Mississippi'', a ''

'' and '' Backstage West'' Critic's Pick. She also directed ''Pussycat Dolls Live at the Roxy'', the 2002 production that launched

The Pussycat Dolls The Pussycat Dolls were an American girl group and dance ensemble, founded in Los Angeles, California, by choreographer Robin Antin in 1995 as a burlesque troupe. At the suggestion of Jimmy Iovine, Antin decided to take the burlesque troupe ...

girl group, with celebrities such as

Christina Applegate Christina Applegate (born November 25, 1971) is an American actress. As a child actress, she gained recognition for starring as Kelly Bundy in the Fox sitcom '' Married... with Children'' (1987–1997). Applegate established a successful film a ...

Carmen Electra Tara Leigh Patrick (born April 20, 1972), known professionally as Carmen Electra, is an American actress, model, singer, and media personality. She began her career as a singer after moving to Minneapolis, where she met Prince, who produced h ...

, and special guests Gwen Stefani,

Christina Aguilera Christina María Aguilera (; ; born December 18, 1980) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and television personality. Known for her four-octave vocal range and ability to sustain high notes, she has been referred to as the " Voice of ...

, Brittany Murphy,

Nikka Costa Domenica "Nikka" Costa (born 4 June 1972) is an American singer whose music combines elements of pop, soul, and blues. She also had a career as a child singer starting in the early 1980s. She is the daughter of music producer Don Costa. Early ...

, and Charlize Theron. Hanggi worked with Amy Heckerling to develop Heckerling's 1995 film ''

Clueless ''Clueless'' is a 1995 American coming-of-age teen comedy film written and directed by Amy Heckerling. It stars Alicia Silverstone with supporting roles by Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy and Paul Rudd. It was produced by Scott Rudin and Robert ...

'' into a stage musical which ran Off Broadway from November 2018 to January 2019, fulfilling its original 3-month booking.

Film and television

She made her

feature Feature may refer to: Computing * Feature (CAD), could be a hole, pocket, or notch * Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob * Feature (software design) is an intentional distinguishing characteristic of a software item ...

directorial debut in 2014 with '' Grantham & Rose'', starring Jake T. Austin and

Marla Gibbs Marla Gibbs (born Margaret Theresa Bradley; June 14, 1931) is an American actress, singer, comedian, writer and television producer, whose career spans six decades. Gibbs is known for her role as George Jefferson's maid, Florence Johnston, in th ...

. Her follow-up film, '' Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List'' (2015), starring Victoria Justice, is an adaption of the Rachel Cohn and David Levithan novel of the same name. Hanggi adapted and directed the children's book series, ''

Dear Dumb Diary ''Dear Dumb Diary'' is a series of children's novels by Jim Benton. Each book is written in the first person view of a middle school girl named Jamie Kelly. The series is published by Scholastic in English and Random House in Korean. Film right ...

'' into a musical

telefilm A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

, with

Jerry Zucker Jerry Gordon Zucker (born March 11, 1950) is an American film producer, director, and writer known for his role in directing comedy spoof films such as ''Airplane!'' and '' Top Secret!'', and the Best Picture-nominated supernatural drama film ' ...

as executive producer.

References

External links