Steven Jacobson

Steven Jacobson began his career in Hollywood close to the bottom: his first screen credit, for 2004's Bill Condon-directed biopic "Kinsey" (starring Liam Neeson as the controversial behaviorist Dr. Alfred Kinsey and Laura Linney as his wife and assistant Clara McMillen), is as the assistant to producer Gail Mutrux. Clearly, he must have been good at his job, because only two years later, Jacobson was promoted all the way up to second unit director on Condon's musical smash "Dreamgirls," Adapted from the Tony Award-winning 1981 Broadway musical loosely based on the story of Motown superstars The Supremes. In 2008, Jacobson graduated to director for "Center Stage: Turn It Up," a sequel of sorts to the 2000 drama "Center Stage," about a competitive New York City ballet academy. (The sequel reprises only two characters from the original film, Peter Gallagher as the school's head choreographer and director and real-life ballet star Ethan Stiefel as a headstrong ballet instructor.) "Center Stage: Turn It Up" is a Romeo and Juliet story about a poor young ballerina (Rachele Brooke Smith) and the more accomplished male dancer who encourages her; though the low budget sequel did not obtain a theatrical release in the United States, it premiered on an American cable network and received a 2009 DVD release.