Kevin Tancharoen is a dynamic director with two upcoming MTV series he directed, co-created, and co-executive produced, Twentyfourseven (2006), executive produced by Ken Mok premiering December 6th, and Dancelife (2007), executive produced by Jennifer Lopez. These, along with his other current gig directing the dance sequences for the upcoming The Pussycat Dolls project on The CW, represent just the latest in a long list of impressive credits for the 22-year-old that include directing Britney Spears' "Onyx Hotel" tour, choreographing her "Me Against the Music" video, remixing projects for Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, and Tyrese Gibson, making creative contributions to Britney Spears' "Dream Within a Dream Tour" and *NSYNC's "Pop Odyssey Tour," and even directing Michael Jackson's 45th birthday celebration.
His double-fisted success at MTV started when Tancharoen showed his agent at ICM a seven-minute presentation he shot, edited, directed and co-wrote with his sister for a show concept digging deep into the behind-the-scenes lives of dancers. ICM saw a hit in the making and attached another ICM client to executive produce, Jennifer Lopez, who was herself a former dancer. MTV loved the project and Tancharoen found himself on board to direct his first television series, Dancelife (2007). He was only 20 years old at the time.
In the six-month period while the details of the full project were being worked out, Tancharoen approached a club promoter acquaintance of his and arranged to tag along with him and his group of young Hollywood hopefuls with a camera that included aspiring actors, musicians, and filmmakers as they hung together and pursued their dreams.
Tancharoen produced a nine-minute presentation from this footage for a series called Twentyfourseven (2006), featuring seven of the characters. This time ICM attached Ken Mok of television's Top Model USA (2003) and the film Invincible (2006) to executive produce. MTV ordered a pilot based on the presentation and then went ahead with a full season order. The series is scheduled to premiere on Dec. 6, as part of MTV's prized "10 Spot" programming block. In the meantime, he has been brought on board to direct the dance sequences in the upcoming The Pussycat Dolls television series for The CW.
His skyrocketing career as a director is built upon his experiences as a dancer, choreographer, editor, producer, and writer. Tancharoen's fascination with Hollywood began at age 4 when he first started seeing movies with his parents. By age 6, his parents were allowing him to join them at R-rated moves, and in 6th grade, he was writing class papers about Robert C. Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino.
Even at that young age, he focused on the creative and technical aspects of filmmaking, enjoying the "making of" and "behind the scenes" featurettes as much as the actual films. This led him to explore the creation of special effects, enrolling in a creature mold-making class side by side with people twice his age. His next step was to get a computer initially to dabble in digital effects but instead, surrounded by aspiring musicians, found himself drawn to shooting and editing their music videos.
Tancharoen also had a passion for dance. His older sister was in a group on the Motown label, and he would often come along and sit in the back of her rehearsals and dance classes, mimicking the moves he saw. His mom noticed his aptitude and enrolled him in dance classes as well.
When he was 12, he enrolled in a dance class taught by 13-year-old wonder-kid Wade Robson, who invited him into his dance company after just the first class. Tancharoen used this opportunity to delve deeper into the technical aspects of dance and quickly morphed into a choreographer.
While providing technical assistance to top musical acts including *NSYNC on their "Pop Odyssey" tour, Tancharoen also found himself making creative contributions as well while simultaneously landing opportunities to undertake remixing projects for the likes of Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, and Tyrese Gibson for various live performances and television specials. He set up a production company, Labwork Entertainment, with his sister, to provide a one stop shop for his growing roster of projects.
When assisting on Britney Spears' "Dream Within a Dream Tour," Tancharoen was also called upon to contribute to the video segments for the big stage screens. Those contributions caught the attention of the concert producer, who asked him to create the video segment for the closing credits.
Tancharoen, who was in the habit of saying "yes" when asked if he could handle something, agreed and with a laptop and a stack of "how to" books pulled it together in the short 6 weeks before the launch of the tour.
His aptitude earned him an invitation to choreograph Britney Spears in her "Me Against the Music" video with Madonna, which led to an American Choreography Award nomination. Next, she asked him to remix three of her songs for a medley Spears would perform on a television special for the launch of the NFL season.
After that project, Tancharoen presented Spears with a fully fleshed out vision for Spears' upcoming "Onyx Hotel" tour which he approached like a movie pitch with a 90-page script, storyboards, costume and prop ideas, and concepts for the on-stage video screen segments. She brought him on to direct the tour. She also tapped his talent as artistic director for her In the Zone (2003) television special on ABC.
His next undertaking was directing The JammX Kids (2004), an imaginative DVD project aimed at inspiring kids to become more active through dancing by learning the latest dance moves, for TV veterans Andrew Adelson and Merv Adelson's new venture, Lightforce Entertainment, in 2004.
It was a feature story about Tancharoen's work on this project in Los Angeles Magazine that caught the attention of ICM, who signed him for representation and opened the door to his current MTV projects.
Despite all of this success at such a young age, Tancharoen, still remains a remarkably focused and grounded person. A straight arrow who is admittedly "more in love with the work than the lifestyle," he currently lives in Los Angeles.
