Paul Becker

Paul Becker’s career started about as far away from Hollywood as you can imagine.

Growing up on Vancouver Island, Paul worked as a dishwasher and cook in his mother’s diner. He taught himself how to breakdance around the age of 11, mostly from watching other dancers, and eventually worked up the courage to follow a group of girls into a dance class.

He was hooked.

Paul began training seriously at 12. By 16, he was already working professionally as a dancer, including appearing in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles television series. And while most choreographers spend decades performing before making the transition into choreography, Paul began choreographing professionally while still a teenager.

By 18, he was choreographing feature films.

A major turning point came when Paul was cast as a dancer in Rob Marshall’s Academy Award-winning film Chicago. Watching Marshall build story through movement changed the way Paul thought about choreography. He realized that dance on film could be far more than steps. It could be dialogue. It could reveal character. It could move a story forward.

That idea became the foundation of his career.

Starting in Vancouver, Paul quickly developed a reputation for approaching choreography like a filmmaker. Word traveled, and what began with Canadian film and television productions grew into a career spanning hundreds of movies, television series, music videos, concerts, stage productions, and live events around the world.

His work has taken him from intimate film sets to productions involving thousands of performers. He has created movement for some of the biggest franchises in entertainment, directed massive live spectacles including the Pan American Games, and worked with artists ranging from Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers to Kanye West and global Latin superstar Don Omar. Even Michael Bublé’s iconic “Haven’t Met You Yet” music video carries a little Becker choreography.

But one of the most important partnerships of Paul’s career began somewhere far less predictable.

On the giant piano inside FAO Schwarz in New York City.

That is where Paul first met legendary director and choreographer Kenny Ortega. What began as a chance meeting became a creative partnership, producing partnership, close collaboration, and friendship that has now lasted more than 16 years.

Together, Paul and Kenny have collaborated across film, television, music, and live entertainment, including projects with Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers, Disney’s Descendants, Netflix’s Julie and the Phantoms, and numerous projects currently in development.

As Paul’s career evolved, so did the scale of his storytelling.

He wrote, directed, and choreographed the Lionsgate feature Breaking Brooklyn, starring Academy Award winner Louis Gossett Jr. and Vondie Curtis-Hall, and later directed episodes of Netflix’s Julie and the Phantoms. His work has increasingly moved beyond choreography and into directing, writing, producing, music, visual effects, and the development of entire cinematic worlds.

Most recently, Paul directed and choreographed LEGO Friends: Heartlake the Musical, LEGO’s first live-action musical film, while also helping develop its story and original music.

Today, Paul continues to move between film, television, live entertainment, music, and emerging technology. He has founded an AI virtual production company focused on exploring new forms of visual storytelling and the collision between traditional filmmaking, performance, virtual production, and generative AI.

And after spending most of his life behind the camera, Paul has never completely left performing behind. He has also built a substantial audience of his own, with more than 400 million lifetime views across his YouTube content, and recently found himself back in front of the camera, playing himself in an upcoming Hallmark production.

Paul has never really fit into one box.

He is a director who understands movement. A choreographer who thinks in shots. A producer who likes building things from nothing. A writer fascinated by character. And a lifelong performer who still believes that some of the best ideas happen when you stop worrying about what your job title is and simply tell the story.

From washing dishes in his mother’s diner on Vancouver Island to directing films and building new forms of cinematic storytelling, the through line has remained surprisingly simple:

Paul loves making things move.