Michael Rooney


Michael Joseph Rooney is an American choreographer. He is the son of actor Mickey Rooney. Best known for his work on a number of music videos, Rooney has won MTV Video Music Award for Best Choreography five times.

Personal life

Rooney is the son of actors Mickey Rooney and Barbara Ann Thomason. He is Mickey Rooney's sixth child and youngest biological son. His mother was Mickey Rooney's fifth wife. Michael has two older sisters, Kelly Ann and Kerry Yule Rooney ; and one younger sister, Kimmy Sue. In addition to his sisters, he has three older half-brothers and two younger half-siblings all from his father's other marriages.
Michael and his sisters were brought up by their maternal grandmother after the murder of their mother. When Michael was almost 4 years old, Thomason was shot to death by her lover, who then turned the gun on himself. Michael and his two older sisters were in the house when the murder-suicide occurred. Michael attended Rolling Hills High School in Southern California, where he was active in performing arts and known as Michael Thomason.

Career

Rooney is a choreographer, who has won MTV Video Music Awards for best choreography for the videos to both Björk's "It's Oh So Quiet" and Fat Boy Slim's "Praise You". He is currently the Co-Producer and Choreographer for the smash TV show for VH1's "Hit the Floor" for the year 2013. Rooney also choreographed the major dance sequence in the film "500 Days of Summer," starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Notable work has included choreographing Michael Jackson's "You Rock My World, Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Out of My Head" and Fatboy Slim's "Praise You". Further music video work has included for Fiona Apple's "Paper Bag", My Chemical Romance's "Helena" and Bon Jovi's "Say It Isn't So". TV work has included for Dancing with the Stars, Any Day Now, Mad About You, Zeke and Luther, Saved by the Bell and the pilot episode of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, while film work has included "500 Days of Summer", "Clerks 2" and "The Muppets". He has also done choreography for adverts, including for Mother's Cookies, Diesel Jeans and Baileys.

Awards