Cris Judd
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- This article is about the actor and choreographer. For the Australian Football captain, see Chris Judd.
Cristan Lee Judd (born August 15, 1969, in Abilene, Texas) is an American actor and choreographer, but is probably best known for his failed marriage to Jennifer Lopez.
Before Hollywood, Cris spent his early years growing up on Air Force bases in Angeles City in the Philippines and Hawaii. The Air Force then moved his family to Florida, where he spent his high school years. While in Florida, Cris, an avid athlete, spent a lot of time surfing and golfing. With a golf handicap of four, he even considered going pro after graduation, but instead decided to go to college. While in college, he landed his first job at Disney World with friend and colleague, Wayne Brady.
It was at 21, while hanging out with Wayne at clubs and entering club dance contests after work, that Cris first discovered that he was a natural on the dance floor. Within a year, Cris switched jobs and began dancing professionally with Disney. He quickly began to get noticed on a national level and, based solely on a word-of-mouth recommendation, was hired to dance with Michael Jackson for the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards. Cris was an instant hit. He was offered a coveted spot dancing with Michael on both the Dangerous and History tours, rapidly moving up to lead dancer for the tour. Cris' dance and choreography career exploded after that. In 1999, he performed at the Billboard Music Awards with Celine Dion, the MTV Music Awards with N'SYNC, and in 2000 at the American Music Awards with Enrique Iglesias and Brian McKnight, and for "Best Song" nominee That Thing You Do at the 69th Annual Academy Awards. Cris also teamed up for the first time with famed choreographer Eddie Garcia, a collaboration that continues to this day, to choreograph the 2000 Tour for Jordan Knight.
Since that time, Cris has danced in and choreographed numerous music videos including My Way for Usher, Jump, Jive, & Wail for the Brian Setzer Orchestra, If I Could Go for Angie Martinez and Tango for Julio Iglesias, and he was the Director for the music video Ain't It Funny-Remix with Ja Rule. Leaping forward yet again, Cris then stepped in as Creative Director for Handprint Entertainment, overseeing a $5 million budget and delivering NBC's hugely successful concert special "Let's Get Loud."
Cris has also ventured into composing where his first song, "Alive," was selected as the theme song for the movie Enough (Sony Music/Columbia Pictures) and went on to be a success on the music charts as well.
Cris broke away from his dancing and choreography roots and moved his acting career into high gear; he recently guest starred on Unfabulous with Emma Roberts, has appeared on sweeps week episodes of Eve, Half and Half, and Everybody Loves Raymond, and has an acting cameo in Bringing Down the House where he also served as choreographer for Steve Martin's dance scenes.
He also coached Nicole Kidman for how to speak to movement for her dance scene in "The Human Stain" and coached Lou Diamond Philips for a recent role of his.
He met future wife Jennifer Lopez in Spain when he was flown out there and hired to direct the music video "Love Don't Cost a Thing" for her. They were married on September 29, 2001. The marriage ended in June 2002 when Jennifer Lopez reportedly started dating Ben Affleck.
Selected as one of People Magazine's "25 Hottest Bachelors" and InTouch Magazine's "20 Hottest Hunks," most of America remembers Cris' television debut on "I'm a Celebrity - Get Me Out of Here" where he won the hearts of millions of viewers and earned $200,000 for the Make-a-Wish Foundation when he was crowned "King of the Jungle" in a landslide viewer vote.
On the acting front, Cris has two new feature film projects in the works slated to shoot this spring, along with more sitcom guest-starring appearances. He partnered up with Universal, Dean Cain and long-time choreography partner, Eddie Garcia, to produce an interactive dance DVD which was released in summer 2005, and has prepared the Midnight Fantasy musical for the Luxor Resort in Las Vegas.
In 2006, Cris was one of the judges for the NFL Cheerleader Playoffs that was televised on NFL Network. The 2nd round of the competition had him not only judging, but coaching the contestants...giving each pair of cheerleaders a little bit of advice.
