Kenny Wormald (born July 27, 1984) is an American dancer, reality television star and actor. His best known role to date is perhaps as Ren McCormack in the 2011 remake of 1984's Footloose. Wormald was a regular on the MTV reality television series Dancelife in 2007.
Early life[]
Wormald was born in Boston, to Melanie and Edgar K. Wormald, and grew up in Stoughton, Massachusetts, where he graduated from Stoughton High School in 2002. He has two brothers, Lee and Dylan. He moved to Los Angeles right after his high school graduation.
Dance career[]
He began dancing at the age of six, after his mother saw him dancing to a New Kids on the Block video. At age 13, he won the Master Dance of New England and was named the Junior Mr. Dance of New England. A year later, at age 14, he was named Teen Dancer of Boston. At age 15, he was named Teen Mr. Dance of New England. In 1996, Wormald was selected to dance for President Bill Clinton at the White House as part of the annual Easter celebration. In 2002, he won the gold medal at the World Dance Championships in Riesa, Germany for a tap dance routine he performed. Wormald has appeared in music videos forMadonna, Mariah Carey, Chris Brown, Christina Aguilera, Nelly Furtado, BoA and JoJo. Wormald has been a back-up dancer for both Justin Timberlake and The Pussycat Dolls tours.
Acting and reality television career[]
In January 2004, Wormald starred as a dancer in the movie You Got Served.In December 2006, Wormald was announced to have joined the MTV Jennifer Lopez-produced dance-oriented reality television series Dancelife which follows a group of aspiring dancers trying to make it in Hollywood. Notably the series also starred So You Think You Can Dance Canada choreographer Blake McGrath. The series was not renewed for a second season due to low ratings. In April 2008 Wormald was confirmed to make his Acting debut in the Oxygen cable network Made-For-Television film Center Stage: Turn It Up as the male lead. The film, a sequel toCenter Stage, premiered in November that same year to generally negative reviews from critics.
In June 2010, Paramount Pictures announced Wormald was cast as the protagonist in the planned remake of the 1984 dance drama film Footloose. Both Zac Efron and Chace Crawford were attached to play the role of Ren McCormack but both dropped out. Filming took place in September that same year on a $24 million budget with Julianne Hough and Dennis Quaid confirmed to star. The film Footloose was released on October 14, 2011 to generally positive reviews from critics with Wormald's performance receiving mixed reviews. The film went on to gross over $62 million worldwide.
In November 2012, Wormald began filming God Only Knows in Boston, directed by James Mottern.