BIOGRAPHY

writer/director

Jordi Ortega

Jordi Ortega is a Writer/Director from Barcelona, Spain, based in Los Angeles, CA. He is available to direct commercials, music videos, documentaries, Film, TV and video for social.

Jordi's life can be traced wherever his stories have taken him. A global citizen and a student of emotions, he loves working with actors and is experienced working with non-actors (including children and animals) in projects requiring tremendous flexibility. A believer in responsible messages, Jordi's signature is the pursuit of our common humanity, the celebration of different cultures and the infusion of hope in his stories.

Jordi began his eclectic career as an investigative TV journalist, and has also worked as an advertising copywriter and company spokesperson. As a result, he has experience from the production company, advertising agency and corporate client sides.

His training has also been diverse: he has studied communications in Spain; documentary history and literature in France; arts journalism at USC and biomedical journalism at the Marine Biological Laboratory; screenwriting with Pilar Alessandra and video editing at Moviola, in Hollywood; and he has an MBA from UMass Amherst.

Jordi's first films were the TV documentaries El cotxe d'en Xavi (Xavi's Car), and L'habitacio de la Nuria (Nuria's Bedroom), experimental portraits shot in partnership with the characters (2000, RTVE-2). Then followed the independent documentaries Poetry Slam (2005), showcasing some of the best emerging poets in the United States, and American Politics All You Can Eat (2009), about U.S. elections, featuring an interview with Sean Penn.

Additional projects that Jordi has directed include an industrial video for the general shareholders meeting of Grifols, a world leader in plasma products. The fan web commercial 'Dragon thirst ready,' shot in English, Spanish and Spanglish, helped the Latin soda brand Jarritos reach 1 million Facebook "Likes." The music video 'Just Give Me Bichola' (COSMOPOLiTAN, SourPop Records) was on rotation on MTV Latin America and earned a MUSE Award. His TV promo 'Vívelo' (Live it) helped brand the MundoFox US TV network. Jordi directed 'H,' a short about a State Farm agent who became the first driver of the first mass-produced hydrogen car in America (a Hyundai). Jordi also delivered 'Because,' a multigenerational commercial written and directed by him, reflecting the struggles to motivate children to learn Mandarin Chinese.

An article about homelessness gave birth to a news feature for Fuji TV (Japan) about the heart-wrenching theater play La Llorona: Weeping Women on Skid Row, by the L.A.P.D. (Los Angeles Poverty Department). Jordi documented for Reuters TV the visually, culturally and spiritually groundbreaking La Virgen de Guadalupe Dios Inantzin performance by the Los Angeles Theater Company inside the L.A. Cathedral.

Current film/TV projects include the documentary 'Teen Court,' about a youth court in South Los Angeles; the half-hour/single camera TV pilot comedy script 'Summer of the Latin Lovers' (completed); and the script of a Sci-Fi feature film about space exploration.

Jordi is the founder of media production company TORO BRAVO, which is dedicated to the creation of original films, TV shows, books and music that elevate the human spirit, often in collaboration with digital content creators and emerging artists from around the world.