Barry Lather

Barry Lather (born August 16, 1966) is an American creative director, choreographer, producer, and dancer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Los Angeles, California.

Early life Lather was born on August 16, 1966, in Albany, New York. He grew up in a family of five children in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1985, after graduating high school, Lather moved to Los Angeles and trained on scholarship at Joe Tremaine's Dance Center. He continued performing in TV series like Fame and Dancin' to the Hits, commercials, and music videos such as Janet Jackson's "Nasty" and "When I Think of You." In 1987, Lather choreographed for Janet Jackson for the American Music Awards and Grammy Awards, and later for "The Pleasure Principle" music video, which won a Billboard Music Award and an MTV Award for Best Choreography. Other artists he worked choreography for included Prince, Michael Jackson, Paula Abdul, George Michael, Sting, Britney Spears, Lionel Richie and Sheryl Crow. In 1996, Barry was co-choreographer for the acclaimed Michael Jackson's short film Ghost, directed by Stan Winston, and also choreographed the 68th Academy Awards. In 1998, Barry choreographed the NFL Super Bowl Halftime Show featuring superstar Motown artists. In 2001, Barry received a prestigious Emmy Award nomination for his work on the Miss America Pageant.

Lather also recorded an album as a solo artist with the label Atlantic Records/WEA in 1990, titled Turn Me Loose; it was produced by Carl Sturken and Evan Rogers of Rythm Syndicate, and spawned a music video for the single, "Love In The Third Degree".

In the early 2000s, Lather began directing large productions such as world tours and live television performances for artists including Usher, Ciara, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Mariah Carey, Gwen Stefani, The Pussycat Dolls, Paula Abdul, Trey Songz and Miguel. Barry acted as creative director for Usher's The Truth Tour, The OMG Tour and the Showtime special "One Night One Star" live from Puerto Rico. Lather's ice show production choreography includes shows for Paramount Parks and Disney and working with Olympic athletes like Kristi Yamaguchi, Scott Hamilton, and Katarina Witt. In 2010, he directed Usher's performances on So You Think You Can Dance, Britain's Got Talent, X Factor, and the BET Awards 2010. In 2014, he was creative director for performances by Echosmith, Nick Jonas, The Vamps, and Meghan Trainor at the Nickelodeon Halo Awards...and later performances for The Kid's Choice Awards. For the 2016 Grammys, Lather directed Carrie Underwood and Sam Hunt's live mashup performance of "Heartbeat" and "Take Your Time." In early 2018, Lather directed & choreographed the grand opening event for Qiddiya in Saudi Arabia and in 2019 the ground breaking ceremony of the ancient city of Diriyah outside of Riyadh. In 2019, Barry was the creative producer for American Idol's season finale show.

Personal life

Awards Year Film awards / critics Award Work Result Ref 1988 MTV Video Music Awards Best Choreography "The Pleasure Principle" music video 2001 Emmys Outstanding Choreography Miss America 2000 2016 Pollstar Most Creative Stage Production Storyteller Tour: Stories in the Round

Selected directing and choreography TV and film 1992: Roundhouse (3 seasons) 1993: Super Mario Bros. 1995: Michael Jackson: One Night Only HBO Special 1996: Michael Jackson's Ghosts 1996: 68th Academy Awards 1997: Vegas Vacation 1997: Melinda: First Lady of Magic 1998: Blues Brothers 2000 2000-2018: Miss America Pageant 2000-2001: Nikki (7 episodes) 2002: Death to Smoochy 2002: Unconditional Love 1998-2002: The Drew Carey Show (2 episodes) 2008: Good Girl Gone Bad Live Rihanna 2009: TV Special Jennifer Hudson 2012: Duets (1 season) 2014: Nickelodeon HALO Awards 2019: American Idol Season Finale (Creative Producer) 2021: Carrie Underwood Live from the Ryman 2022: American Idol (Creative Producer)

Music videos 1987: "The Pleasure Principle" - Janet Jackson 1987: "We'll Be Together" - Sting 1987: "Diamonds" - Herb Alpert 1988: "Kiss" - Tom Jones 1989: "Electric Youth" - Debbie Gibson 1989: "Batdance" - Prince 1992: "Jam" - Michael Jackson 1992: "My Destiny" - Lionel Richie 1995: "Crazy Cool" - Paula Abdul 1996: "If It Makes You Happy" - Sheryl Crow 1996: "The Only Thing That Looks Good on Me Is You" - Bryan Adams 1996: "Let's Make a Night to Remember" - Bryan Adams

Live performances and award shows 1987: 29th Annual Grammy Awards (Janet Jackson) 1987: American Music Awards (Janet Jackson) 1998: Super Bowl Halftime Special / Tribute to Motown 2003: MTV Video Music Awards (P Diddy) 2004: BET Awards (Usher) 2004: MTV Video Music Awards (Usher) 2004: American Music Awards (Usher & Alicia Keys) 2005: Fashion Rocks (Gwen Stefani, Pharrell, P. Diddy) 2007: BET Awards - (Ciara) 2008: BET Awards, American Music Awards, Fashion Rocks (Rihanna) 2008: BET Awards (Usher) 2008: Donny & Marie Osmond Las Vegas Residency Show at the Flamingo 2009: BET Awards (Keri Hilson) 2010: MTV Video Music Awards (Usher "OMG" performance) 2011-2015: Country Music Awards (Carrie Underwood, Blake Shelton, Luke Bryan, Kenny Chesney) 2011: 2011 Latin Grammy Awards (Usher, Romeo Santos) 2011: American Music Awards (Justin Bieber) 2011: American Idol performance (Nicole Scherzinger) 2012: Divas (Ciara) 2012-13: BET Award performances (Miguel) 2013: Grammy Awards (Miguel & Wiz Khalifa) 2013: Dancing with the Stars performance (Demi Lovato) 2013: Billboard Awards (Miguel) 2015: Kid's Choice Awards (Nick Jonas) 2015: CMT Awards (Carrie Underwood) 2016: ACMs, CMA, CMT Award performances (Carrie Underwood) 2017: BET Awards (Trey Songz) 2018: 2018 Radio Disney Music Awards (Carrie Underwood) 2018: "Qiddiya" Live Opening Ceremony in Saudi Arabia 2018: MTV Video Music Awards (Logic) 2018: ACMs, CMT Fest, CMA, American Music Awards - (Carrie Underwood) 2019: Robbie Williams "Live in Las Vegas" Residency show at The Wynn 2019: British Summer Time Hyde Park - Robbie Williams 2019: Nu Skin Corporate Event 2019: "Diriyah" Opening Ceremony Event in Saudi Arabia 2020: "Rockumentary" - Live Show / Celebrity Cruises 2021: American Music Awards - (Jason Aldean & Carrie Underwood) 2021: "Reflection" Las Vegas Residency Show at Resortsworld - Carrie Underwood 2021: Gala Live Event Las Vegas / Volo Events 2022: Stagecoach - (Carrie Underwood) 2022: Gala Live Event Los Angeles "Super Bowl" & Malta / Volo Events 2023: "Residency" - Live Show / Celebrity Cruises 2025: New Year's Rockin' Eve - Carrie Underwood

Tours 1988-1989: The Faith Tour - George Michael 1991: Under My Spell Tour - Paula Abdul 2001-2002: Dream Within a Dream Tour - Britney Spears 2004: The Truth Tour - Usher 2006: PCD World Tour - The Pussycat Dolls 2006: The Emancipation of MiMi Tour - Mariah Carey 2006: L.O.V.E. Tour - Ashlee Simpson 2007: Dancing with the Stars Tour 2007: Girl Gone Bad Tour - Rihanna 2010: OMG Tour - Usher 2012: John Fogerty Tour 2012: Kaleidoscope Dream Tour - Miguel 2014: The Elusive Chanteuse Tour - Mariah Carey 2014: John Fogerty 1969 Tour 2015: Jackie Tour - Ciara 2015: Between the Sheets Tour - Trey Songz 2016: The Storyteller Tour - Carrie Underwood 2017: The Total Package Tour - Paula Abdul 2019: Straight Up Paula Tour - Paula Abdul 2019: The Cry Pretty Tour 360 - Carrie Underwood 2022: Hans Zimmer European Tour 2022: The Denim & Rhinestones Tour - Carrie Underwood 2025: John Fogerty Legacy Tour 2025: Hans Zimmer "The Next Level" Tour