Dennis Courtney

Dennis Courtney, born Denis Beaulne on April 30, 1958, in Detroit, Michigan, is an American actor, stage director, choreographer, and teacher of master classes in auditioning for the theatre. The son of French Canadian parents Albert Beaulne and Claudette Perron, he grew up to attend Anderson High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, and went on to study theatre at the University of Cincinnati. He adopted the stage name Dennis Courtney when he took his first union acting job in 1978.

Courtney made his Broadway debut in 1979 in Peter Pan, a production that starred Sandy Duncan and George Rose. His subsequent stage work included Shenandoah alongside John Raitt in 1984, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat also in 1984, and Roza in 1987. His Broadway career extended through 1989 with Starlight Express, which ran into 1990.

Beyond performing, Courtney built a career as a director and choreographer. His most prominent directorial achievement was winning the 2008 Israeli National Theatre Prize for his staging of Fiddler on the Roof at the Cameri Theatre in Tel Aviv, a production that ran for nearly eight years before closing on January 27, 2016. He also directed and choreographed My Way for the Riverside Center Theatre in Virginia, and directed It Shoulda Been You, starring Kim Zimmer, and 8 Track: The Sounds of the 70's for Gretna Theatre in 2016. In March 2017, he directed the pre-Broadway workshop production of The Last Adam, a new musical by George Alex Livings and Jonathan Hickey. He has additionally collaborated with playwright David Brian Colbert on Still Waters: The Life of the Legendary Ethel Waters, a new play with music about the performer Ethel Waters.

Courtney resides in New York City and maintains homes in Sarasota, Florida, and Palm Desert, California.