Sergio Trujillo

Sergio Trujillo is a Colombian theater director, choreographer, dancer, and actor. Born in Colombia and raised in Toronto, Canada, he is an American citizen and resides in New York City. Trujillo was the recipient of the 2019 Tony Award for Best Choreography for Ain't Too Proud and the 2015 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer for Memphis. He is the first ever Hispanic recipient of the Tony Award for Best Choreography.

He received his first Emmy Award nomination in 2021 for NBC’s Christmas in Rockefeller Center.

Trujillo was born in Cali, Colombia, and moved to the Canadian suburb of North York, Toronto, with his family at age 12. Trujillo named his production company Two Kings Productions in memory of his father and brother.

He studied science at the University of Toronto and then attended chiropractic school. However, he left school to pursue a dance career in New York City.^[1] Of his desire to be a choreographer, he said, "I knew that 'Fosse' would be my last show as a dancer when I began feeling limited by somebody else's work. I didn’t get to express myself, and I needed to do something about it."^[2]

In 2011, Trujillo had four shows simultaneously running on Broadway: Memphis, Jersey Boys, The Addams Family, and Next to Normal, the recipient of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize.^[3]

Trujillo made his Broadway debut as a performer in Jerome Robbins' Broadway in 1989.^[4] He also appeared in Guys and Dolls (1992), Victor/Victoria (1998), and Fosse (1999). He made his choreographic debut in 2005 with All Shook Up, followed up by Jersey Boys the same year.

Trujillo is the choreographer of the Broadway production of Summer: The Donna Summer Musical which earned him a 2018 Chita Rivera Award for Dance and Choreography. Other Broadway credits include: On Your Feet! (Tony Award Nomination, Astaire Award), Hands on a Hardbody (Drama Desk nomination), Leap of Faith (Drama Desk Nomination), and Guys and Dolls (Astaire Awards nomination). In September 2023, it was announced that Trujillo would transfer his and Karla Puno's choreography from the Off-Broadway production of Days of Wine and Roses to Broadway in January 2024.^[5]

Off-Broadway, he choreographed Paul Simon's The Capeman at the Public Theater, Invisible Thread (2015 Lucille Lortel Award Nomination), Bare: A Pop Opera (2004), A Tree Grows in Brooklyn for City Center Encores!, The Great American Trailer Park Musical (2005), The Public Theater—Shakespeare in the Park (New York City's production of Romeo and Juliet), Kismet for Encores!, Saved (2008) for Playwrights Horizons (Lucille Lortel Award nomination), and Days of Wine and Roses (2023) for Atlantic Theater Company (with Karla Puno). He directed Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine on Broadway at the Minskoff Theatre and was the director and choreographer of the digital concert ¡Viva Broadway! Hear Our Voices.

He was the director and choreographer for Arrabal at the American Repertory Theater in Boston, which earned him an Elliot Norton Award for direction, Cirque du Soleil's Paramour, as well as Flashdance the Musical, which had a North America tour from 2013 to 2015.

His regional theatre credits include Mambo Kings (San Francisco), Zhivago and The Wiz at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, a US tour of Kiss of the Spider Woman (performer, mid-1990s), and West Side Story in 1999 and 2009 at the Stratford Festival, Canada.^[2] He also choreographed at the Village Theatre for their musical staging of The Wedding Banquet (2003). In the West End, he choreographed Peggy Sue Got Married.^[6][7] In 2007, he also choreographed the Disney musical Tarzan in Scheveningen.^[8]

Additional theatre credits include Carmen; An Afro-Cuban Musical (Helen Hayes Award nomination), Kiss of the Spider Woman (North Shore Music Theatre), Kiss Me Kate (Tokyo), Needfire (Royal Alexandra Theatre), a musical adaptation of Twelfth Night (Tokyo), and segments of Chita Rivera's Chita and All That Jazz. Trujillo serves as director and choreographer of Real Women Have Curves, a new musical based on the play of the same name. The musical premiered in 2023. ^[9]

Trujillo choreographed The Marriage of Figaro for the Los Angeles Opera and Salome for the New York City Opera.^[6]

Trujillo married his long-time partner, actor Jack Noseworthy, in 2011 after 21 years together. Trujillo and Noseworthy gave birth to one son, Lucas Alejandro Truworthy, in 2018.^[10]

• 2021 Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography – Christmas in Rockefeller Center (nominee)
• 2019 Tony Award for Best Choreography – Ain't Too Proud (winner)^[11]
• 2016 Tony Award Best Choreography – On Your Feet! (nominee)
• 2015 Olivier Award Best Theatre Choreographer – Memphis the Musical (winner)^[12]
• 2013 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Choreography – Hands on a Hardbody (nominee)
• 2012 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Choreography – Leap of Faith (nominee)
• 2010 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Choreography – Memphis (nominee)
• 2009 Lucille Lortel Award Outstanding Choreographer – Saved (nominee)^[13]
• 2006 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Choreography – Jersey Boys (nominee)
• 2010 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Choreography – Memphis (winner tie)^[14]
• 2016 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Choreography – On Your Feet
• 2018 Elliot Norton Awards for Outstanding Director, Large Theater – Arrabal (winner)^[15]
• 2003 Ovation Awards for Outstanding Choreography – Empire: A New Musical

• Sergio Trujillo at the Internet Broadway Database
• Internet Off-Broadway Database listing
• Sergio Trujillo on the American Theatre Wing's documentary series "Working in the Theatre" on choreography in 2016.