Denise Faye

Denise Faye Greenbaum, born July 16, 1963, in New York, New York, is an American actress, dancer, choreographer, and director whose career spans Broadway, film, television, and live performance. Before pursuing a professional career, Faye trained at the School of American Ballet and performed with the New York City Ballet. She later attended Barnard College, where she earned a double major in Urban Studies and Psychology.

Faye's Broadway career ran from 1985 to 1996 and included productions such as Chicago, Guys and Dolls, Jerome Robbins Broadway, Swinging on a Star, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, and The Goodbye Girl. Her stage work extended beyond Broadway to productions at the Public Theater, Lincoln Center Theater, the Williamstown Theater Festival, and Second Stage Theater.

Her transition into film choreography developed through a long collaborative relationship with director Rob Marshall. Faye served as associate choreographer on the 1999 Disney television film Annie, which Marshall directed, and went on to work alongside him on the 2002 film Chicago, for which she received a Screen Actors Guild Award. She continued as associate choreographer on Marshall's subsequent projects, including Memoirs of a Geisha in 2005, Nine in 2009, and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides in 2011. She also served as associate choreographer for the 75th Annual Academy Awards in 2003 and the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2007, both choreographed by Marshall and John DeLuca, as well as the Tony Bennett television special An American Classic in 2006.

As a lead choreographer, Faye worked on the 2010 film Burlesque, starring Cher and Christina Aguilera, for which she received the Dance Track Magazine Artist Award for best choreography in a feature film. That work also earned her nominations for the Fred and Adele Astaire Award and the World Dance Awards. Additional film choreography credits include My Week with Marilyn in 2011, for which she also directed Michelle Williams's musical numbers, and We're the Millers in 2013, where she choreographed Jennifer Aniston's strip tease sequence. She served as choreographer on Central Intelligence in 2016, The Witches in 2020, and Red Notice, which starred Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds. In 2023, she choreographed the music video "Heartbeat" by Davina Michelle.

Faye also appeared as a performer in several films. She had a role in the 2012 film Rock of Ages alongside Tom Cruise, Mary J. Blige, and Alec Baldwin, and provided a voice in the 2012 animated film ParaNorman, her first appearance in an animated film. In 2013, she voiced a character in Legends of Oz: Dorothy Returns, starring Lea Michele and Bernadette Peters.

For the 85th Annual Academy Awards in 2013, Faye restaged and choreographed the "All That Jazz" number featuring Catherine Zeta-Jones. That same year she choreographed the full Academy Awards ceremony and directed a staged reading of the musical The Magic Horn at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, a production written by Charlie Midnight, James Marr, and Wendy Piggot that was being developed for Broadway. In 2014, Faye co-directed and choreographed Cher's Dressed to Kill tour and also choreographed a live extravaganza for Steve Wynn featuring Hugh Jackman. She subsequently directed the concert DVD of Martha Davis and the Motels Live at the Whisky a Go Go's 50th Anniversary, released in 2015, and directed a music video for the same artist.

Faye's television choreography credits include segments for Dancing with the Stars, The American Music Awards, and the series finale of The X Factor UK, all in 2010. She choreographed episodes of the television series Saving Grace in 2009, Castle in 2011, The Ranch in 2017, Mary + Jane in 2017, and Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes on Television. She also appeared in the Jon Bon Jovi music video "Queen of New Orleans," the lead single from his solo album Destination Anywhere. Among her honors, Faye holds an American Choreography Award in addition to her Screen Actors Guild Award for Chicago.