Cris Morena
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Cris Morena (born Cristina de Giacomi on August 23, 1956), is an Argentine actress, show host, producer, composer and writer.
She's Argentina's most succeful producer and some of Argentina's most popular actors were discovered by her: Michel Brown, Romina Gaetani, Celest Cid, Luisana Lopilato, Camila Bordonaba, Benjamin Rojas, Felipe Colombo, Agustina Cherri, Marcela Klobooster, Luciana Castro, el Chido Fernandez, Agustina Lecouna, Manuela Pal, Octavio Borro, Jazmín Stuart, Dolores Fonzi, Romina Yan, Tomas Fonzi, among others.
She produces mostly kids and teen-oriented shows.
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[edit] Life and show business career
Cris Morena was a struggling, young teenaged actress when she gave birth to her daughter, Romina Yan, on September 5, 1974. It wouldn't be until six years later that Morena found herself acting on Argentine television. In 1980, Morena made her television acting debut, as "Viveka", in a series that was coincidentally named like her daughter, "Romina".
Cris Morena would struggle on for four more years. In 1984, she participated in a comedy show, "Mesa de Noticias" ("News Table"), where she was casted as "Cris".
Morena became an established television actress in Argentina during the middle 1980s, when her number of roles as an actress began to rise steadily. In 1986, she participated in the comedy film, "Rambito y Rambón: Primera Misión" ("Little Rambo and Big Rambo: First Mission", a spoof of Sylvester Stallone's Rambo character), alongside Argentine comedy legends Alberto Olmedo and Jorge Porcel. In 1987, Morena acted in another film, "Los Colimbas al Ataque" ("The Colimbas to the Attack").
Cris returned to television during 1988, playing "Norma" in "Ella contra mí" ("She against me"). Her next soap opera, "Amigos son los Amigos" ("Friends will be Friends"), was a major success. Morena once again played a character named "Cris" in this soap opera.
After a three year hiatus, Morena returned to Argentine television in 1991, as host and producer of a teen-television show named "Jugate Conmigo" ("Play With Me"). "Jugate Conmigo" was a huge hit spawning popular albums (with all songs written and composed by Cris), concerts and licensed products. After the huge success of the show, Cris became a respected producer.
1993 marked her return to acting, as she once again formed part of the cast of "Amigos son los Amigos", this time for a TV movie. Whereas 1993 marked her return as a television actress, 1994 marked her retirement as such. In her last presentation to date playing a role on television, she gave life to "Paula" in 1994's "Quereme" ("Love me"), which was produced by her but wasn't very succeful. After the flop of the soap, which had part of the Jugate Conmigo cast, she decided to stick with kids shows with songs.
[edit] The Chiquititas era
After months of thinking about a new concept, she became inspired and, together with a number of other producers and writers, Morena approached Telefe's board of directors about a children and teenagers telenovela, about a group of kids that live in an orphanage. Thus "Chiquititas" ("Tiny Angels") was born. Like in the case of Puerto Rican music group Menudo, children actors at "Chiquititas" had to leave the soap opera once they reached the age of sixteen.
Morena produced "Chiquititas" along with the other producers; the show began to be televised during 1995, with Morena's daughter, Romina Yan, being cast as "Belén", the orphanage's director. Prior to "Chiquitias"' television debut, Morena also composed a set of songs to be sung by the "Chiquititas" cast. These songs were later published in various "Chiquititas" CD's as well. All the Chiquititas CDs went Platinum and topped the local charts.
"Chiquititas" became an international success. Apart from the aforementioned CDs, a magazine, various posters, toys, apparel, cosmetics, among many other products were released.
"Chiquititas" is probably the most popular kids soap ever in Argentina and after the suceful Jugate Conmigo, Chiquititas consolidated Cris as a renowned producer. It had eight seasons and during its whole run, it was the most-watched show among kids.
"Chiquititas" was the story of girls living in an orphanage. The main character was Belen, the orphanage director and Mili, Agustina Cherri character, was the central character in the kids cast.
The girls were the lead of the series for the first two series, but starting in Season 3 the boys and girls from the orphanage start getting equal attention. At the end of the Season 3, Mili said goodbye to the show. The reason for that was because Cris chosed Agustina Cherri to star in her new teen-oriented show, Verano del 98.
Beginning from the second season, Chiquititas complete cast would present a live show every year during three months on Teatro Gran Rex (capacity: 3,000 people) in Buenos Aires. The concert was presented every day during the Winter Vacations (in July) and on weekends in June, August and September. The concerts were always Broadway style, with big production and a big budget and every year the Chiquititas concert had the biggest profit of the year among every tour and musical.
In 1998 the show had a new logo and the "leave the show after you're 16"-rule was dropped. It was the peak of the show and the 1998 album (La Musica de Chiquititas Vol. 4) was the franchise best-selling album and the best-selling album of the year in Argentina. The Chiquititas live show was presented three times a day instead of the usual two times a day like in previous seasons and almost 400,000 people saw Chiquititas 98 concert. 1998 was the end of a cycle for Chiquititas with most of its castmembers leaving the show, incluind protagonists Romina Yan and Facundo Arana. The show would start with a new storyline in 1999 and whole new cast.
In the end of the 4th season, the kids were all adopted by Belen, Romina Yan character, and Alejo, Facundo Arana character. The end of the cycle shows Belen adopting all the kids and all of them shouting "Father! Father" for Alejo, who cries full of emotions. Then, Belen narrates what every character become: veterinarian, actress, teachers, etc. It was a very emotional ending and it was highly-praised by the fans.
In 1999, Chiquititas came back with a new storyline without any of the old characters (some of the actors came back but as new characters). The story was now in a farm and in a mansion next door. There was also lots of teen characers. Grecia Colomares and Dario Grandinetti were the leads and Marcela Klobooster was the main character among the youngsters. Besides the usual kids cast, a new teenagers cast was added.
In 2000, the show came back to the original orphanage and Romina Gaetani replaced Grecia Colomares as the lead actress.
In 2001, Telefe decided not to renew the series after a fight among them and Cris Morena and a drop in the ratings. But because the season 6 ended with a cliffhanger and some of the Season 7 episodes were already shot, they decided to change the series from a daily show to a weekly show with much less episodes. In Season 7, the lead character was Mili (Agustina Cherri), who came back to the orphanage after 4 years and became the director of the place. The last seasons had only 18 episodes (the usual season had over 300) and the show ended in 2001, with Cris Morena giving "Chiquititas de Oro" for every cast member.
At the end of its run, the show had received four Martin Fierros for Best Kids Show, 7 highly-succeful albums, six sold-out seasons at Teatro Gran Rex (incluiding a 3D live show for 2000), two local versions and more than 400 licensed products and was the most succeful kids show ever in Argentina.
In 1997, Chiquititas also gained a Brazilian version for the country's no 2-net SBT. The show had an all Brazilian cast (with Flavia Monteiro as Carolina and Fernanda Souza as Mili) but filmed in Buenos Aires, at the same studios as the original version. The directors from the channel expected Chiquititas to have 10 points of Ibope, but in the first episode the show reached 18 points. It became SBT's most-watched show and the first CD sold over 500,000 copies. The second season was even more succeful and lots of Chiquititas products were released and the 2nd album went Diamond and sold over 1 million copies. The cast also caused mass-histeria when they visited São Paulo to promote the show and the album. Chiqutitas Brazil had four seasons (the 3rd and the 4th season were made as one season in the Brazil version and the 5th season was also in a farm, as the original version, but the cast and the characters were still the same, different from the original version).
Like the Argentine version, lots of the actors from the Brazilian version went on to become popular actors incluinding Bruno Gagliasso, Débora Falabella, Stephany and Kayky Brito, Marcos Pasquim, Bianca Renaldi, Carlas Diaz and many others.
In 1998 a Mexican version was made for TV Azteca with Mexican cast and filmed in Argentina, but the Mexican version was a flop and it ended production before they completed the first season.
A Spanish version for Antena 3 and an American version (to be titled Tiny Angels) were considered, but never went on production.
While "Chiquititas" was a monster hit among kids and preteens, Morena decided to produce a teen-oriented show. "Verano del '98" ("Summer of 98"). Morena composed some songs to the show and was also the creator and the producer. Former "Chiquititas" stars Cherri and Guido Kaczka played a romantic couple in "Verano del '98". Other "Chiquititas" actors participated as well.
As the show's title suggests, this soap opera was intended to be only a series to be shown during the summer of 1998 but the show was so succeful that Telefe decided to produce a complete season. Verano del 98 had a 1999 season and in 2000, for its last season, it was renamed "Verano Eterno" (Endless Summer).
The teen soap, which also had lots of musics and spawned three highly-succeful albums (all of which were certified at least 2 times platinum), told the story of teenagers growing up on the small seaside town of Costa Esperanza. Verano del 98 achieved higher ratings than Chiquititas during most of its run but it didn't spawned as many merchandisings.
Plans for a brazilain version of Verano were mad, but it never happened and Cris Morena created the original concept and produced the first season, as well as composed some of the music, but when Telefe, satisfied with the high ratings, decided to renew the show for a second season, Cris decided to left the show to other producers and to do only Chiquititas.
Chiquititas was re-made two times: in 2003 she did "Rincon de Luz" (Little Corner of Light) for Canal 9. Rincon de Luz was the name of the Chiqutitas' orphanage and the show had a different name because Morena had sold the rights to the "Chiquititas" name to Telefe (and regretted that decision in 2001, when she had a fight with the channel and couldn't continue the show on other network). Rincon de Luz wasn't as succeful as previously Chiquititas season.
In 2006, Morena came back to Telefe to produce a new season for Chiquititas, five years since the end of the original versions. Chiquititas 2006 wasn't as succeful as the previous seasons, but it was the winner in its time-slot and spawned over 50 licensed products, a platinum-certified album and a succeful season at Teatro Gran Rex.
Chiquititas, the original version, was also a huge phenomenon in Israel.
[edit] Rebelde Way
2002 saw Morena produce and direct Rebelde Way, another telenovela with a major impact in Argentina and Latin America. Morena composed the music for "Rebelde Way" as well.
After leaving Telefe, Cris Morena start producing a new teen-oriented show, Rebelde Way, based on the Elite College sketchs inside her show "Jugate Conmigo" in the early-90s. It was the first project for her independent company Cris Morena Group.
After the big repercurssion of Chiquititas in Israel, Israeli executive Yair Dori decided to co-produce the show.
In 2002, the show premiered on Canal 9 in Argentina and the show about teenagers growing-up in an elite boarding school soon became the channel's most-watched program.
Part of the cast was originally from Chiquititas, incluinding the four leads: Luisana Lopilato, Camila Bordonaba, Benjamin Rojas and Felipe Colombo. The show spawned the band Erreway with the four main actors.
Erreway album "Señales" went Platinum in its first week.
Erreway did a series of concert in Teatro Gran Rex in September 2002 and in the end of the year, they went to Israel with the whole cast of the soap. Rebelde Way was a huge phenomenon in Israel and they had a Beatles-like reception, being headlines in the most respected newspapers and having to change hotels two times because of the hysterical fans. The 200,000 seats for the 20 concers in Tel-Aviv sold out in less than one week, with tickets starting at S$50,00. The four members also did over 10 commercials for Israeli brands.
In the middle of its second season, the show moved from Canal 9 to America after Cris had a fight with Canal 9 executives. The show had two highly succeful seasons, but there was a drop in the ratings after the show moved to America.
Erreway did two tours around Argentina, two concert seasons in Teatro Gran Rex and concerts in Bolivia, Peru, Israel, Uruguay, Paraguay, among others.
Rebelde Way was adapted to Mexico (the huge worldwide phenomenon Rebelde) and India (Remix, which was also a big hit among local teens). A Brazilian pilot was made, but it wasn't picked up and a Spanish version was also close to happen, but it never did (instead, Rebelde Way, the original, ended being hugely succeful in the country).
In 2004, after the end of the series, the four members made the movie "Erreway: Cuatro Caminos" which was very succeful and released their third and last album, Memoria.
In 2005, the show exploded in Spain while being shown by local channel Localia. It was soon picked-up by the broadcast channel Cuatro and an Erreway compilation was released and topped the Spanish album charts for two weeks. Camila Bordonaba and Felipe Colombo went to Spain in 2006 to promote the album with a series of signing seasons in departaments stores (in each signing, over a thousand fans atended) and in the end of the year, the four members will reunite for the first time in two years for four concerts in Madrid, Barcelona, Vigo and Zaragoza.
The format will be soon adapted to Chile, Portugal and Russia (who already succefuly showed the original version).
[edit] Floricienta
Floricienta (a mix of Flor, the main character, with Cenicienta, Spanish for Cinderella) was the story of Florencia, a very fun and caring girl who became the baby-sitter for the Fitzwalden brothers.
Besides the name, Floricienta didn't had much similarities between the usual "good girl versus bad girl to get the prince", the fact both are fairy-tales (Floricienta was billed as 21st Century Fairytale), the fact both are charismatic and orphans and that both have the shoes as their trademark. Floricienta logo is her Converse-style sneakers and she's always wearing them and during the first episode, she forgets them on Federico's (the "prince") housse.
Floricienta was critically-acclaimed (the other Cris shows were despised by critics) thanks to its fun storyline and dialogue, creative editing and post-production and the charisma of the main actress, Florencia Bertotti, and became the biggest licensing brand in Argentina in 2004 and 2005, with all the merchandise from the show selling like hot-cakes and hugely succeful concerts in Teatro Gran Rex (with huge productions).
Floricienta started with a good 12 points in its first episode and by the end of the first season episode (with the death of Federico, Flor's love) the show achieved ratings of over 20 points (the only other Cris-produced show to go above 20 points was Amor Mio).
After the huge twist in the end of the first season, many fans of Federico didn't liked how the story went after his death and decided not to watch the show anymore. But the ratings for the second season didn't suffer because of that and the ratings stayed stable.
Floricienta was maybe bigger than Chiquititas and the concerts were so hard to get tickets that Floricienta had to do two concerts in Estadio Velez (capacity: 40,000) and 10 concerts at Luna Park (capacity: 8,000), besides concerts in Rosario and Mar del Plata.
The two Floricienta albums were also very succeful with the first album being the best-seller album in Argentina in 2004 and the second repeating this in 2005.
Floricienta was also a huge phenomenon in other Latin-American countries like Peru, Venezuela, Bolivia and Uruguay. The show was also very big in Hungary, Spain and was one of the most popular shows in Disney Channel Mexico. The cast of the show made sold-out concerts in huge stadium across Latin America and in Tel-Aviv, in Israel.
Floricienta was the biggest kids show in the continent in 2004-2005 and a third season wasn't made because the star of the show, the charismatic Florencia Bertotti, didn't wanted to renew her contract.
The TV show ended with Floricienta marriage in front of a huge live audience.
The show had highly succeful adaptations for Brazil, Portugal, [[Chile
A Mexican version, produced by Rebelde director Pedro Damian, is expected to be as huge as Rebelde was. Working titles for the Mexican version are HabiaUnaVez.com (OnceUpponATime.com) and Lola.
[edit] Other shows
In 2005, Cris produced the highly-succeful adult sitcom Amor Mio which was her highest-rated show in total number of viewers. Amor Mio was also adapted for Mexico's Televisa and is currently Mexico's highest-rated show. The Mexican version is shot in Argentina (similar to Chiquititas Brasil).
In 2006, Cris made Alma Pirata for Telefe. Alma Pirata, which inclueded some of the hottest young actors in Argentina (all discovered by Morena) was expected to be the biggest success of the year but it had mixed-response and the ratings were less than expected. But it is the leader of its timeslot and its always above 15 point, so it can't be considered a flop.
For 2007, she plans another project with Amor Mio (her daughter Romina Yan and Damian Santos) stars about a family and a new kids show losely based on Chiquititas (it was supposed to be a new season of Chiquititas, but because Chiquititas 2006 wasn't as succeful as expected, Cris decided to made a new show losely based on Chiquititas). Both shows will feature music. She also plan to release Benjamin Rojas as a singer.
The Mexican version of Floricienta will also premier in 2007 and between 2007-2008, a portuguese version of Rebelde Way will be released. She'll also release Alma Pirata in Spain, with Benjamin Rojas going to Madrid to promote it.
Chiquititas 2006 and Alma Pirata will premier in over 40 countries each.
[edit] Trivia
- Chiquititas was produced by Telefe. Rebelde Way was her first independent production and it was co-produced by Yair Dori.
- Cris Morena Group produced Rebelde Way, Rincon de Luz, Alma Pirata, Amor Mio and Chiquititas 2006. A sitcom based on comic-strip Gaturro was supposed to premier in 2006, but it was cancelled.
- Cris Morena was married with Gustavo Yanklevich for over 20 years and he was one executive in Telefe until 2000. He founded his own production company RGB and he managed Argentina's most-succeful girlgroup Bandana (2001-2003) and Brazil most popular girlgroup Rouge, both discovered by the reality show Popstars (RGB had the rights for the show in Latin America). He also created succeful reality show Escalera de la Fama and produced two of the most succeful local pictures in the last few years: Chiquititas, la Pelicula (with Cris) (2000) and Bandana: Vivir Intentando. He also produced Erreway: Cuatro Caminos (with Cris Morena Group) and he co-produce every Cris show since 2004 (starting with Floricienta). Because RGB controls Disney Channel in Latin America, Floricienta and Chiquititas 2006 were show on the cable channel for the whole continent (Floricienta received Platinum certification in Mexico thanks to being shown in Disney Channel). He also controls Radio Disney Latin-America and produced the Brazilian version of Floricienta.
- Cris Morena composed the songs for Playhouse Disney Latin-America and Brasil.
- Romina Yan, Cris' daughter, starred in five Cris Morena productions: Jugate Conmigo, Quereme, Chiquititas, Amor Mio and Chiquititas, la Pelicula. She also presented Playhouse Disney and a soap produced by her father, Tus Ojos.
- Tomas Yanklevich, Cris' son, wrote Erreway and Bandana movies and Amor Mio.
- Cris Morena produced Bandana first concert at Gran Rex as a favor to her ex-husband.
- Cris is the composer with most titles registered in Argentina. Besides composing for her own production, she also wrote songs for many other Argentina's children shows (Mi Familia es un Dibujo, Cebollitas, Flavia Palmiero), variety shows (Videomatch, Ritmo de La Noche) and even for respected singers. She almost always write with her partner, Carlos (Rocky) Nilson and she was nominated for a Grammy Latino with the Floricienta albums.
