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Jay Finocchiaro was born in the Philippines and adopted in Australia. His adoptive mother was born in Ireland, and his father's family is of Italian heritage. Raised in Sydney, Jay studied piano and saxophone and attended a performing arts school.
At the age of seven, he was signed to a talent agency and spent several years performing with a professional youth dance company. One of the members at the time was Natalie Imbruglia. Continuing to work as a dancer, musician and singer, Jay appeared in numerous high-profile, celebrity-led events, including the Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade, the World Expo, and the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. By his final year of high school, Jay had performed in over thirty countries and was nominated in the running for Young Australian of the Year Awards.
While still at school, Jay was cast in twelve productions at the Sydney Opera House which included A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Baz Luhrmann and designed by four-time Academy Award winner Catherine Martin; a stadium production of Aida, directed by Mauro Bolognini; and Don Carlo at the State Theatre.
In 1991, Jay appeared opposite Academy Award winning actress Hayley Mills in a revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I, directed by Christopher Renshaw. The production marked the first major musical revival to depart from original staging and featured new choreography by Yuriko Kikuchi and Jerome Robbins. During its Sydney season at Her Majesty's Theatre, the production was officially reviewed by Mary Rodgers, daughter of composer Richard Rodgers, and William Hammerstein, son of Oscar Hammerstein II. Following critical acclaim, Renshaw's production became the first Australian musical invited to Broadway, where it later won four Drama Desk Awards and four Tony Awards in 1996.
At sixteen, Jay was selected as one of ten high school students across Australia to train in orchestral conducting with Finnish maestro Jorma Panula. Jay made his conducting debut at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation studios, leading an orchestra composed of musicians from several of Australia's major state symphony orchestras. Amongst the other candidates in the program was a sixteen-year-old Daniel Smith, who later became one of Australia's most internationally acclaimed conductors. Jay also performed under the baton of distinguished conductors Simone Young, Carlo Felice Cillario, Richard Bonynge, Christopher Hogwood, and Sir Simon Rattle.
Jay performed for several years in a jazz band led by Rory Thomas, a graduate of the Berklee College of Music. Rory worked as a music score arranger for John-Michael Tebelak and Stephen Schwartz's smash hit Godspell, became music director for its Australian premiere in Melbourne, and was a reporter and late-night radio DJ at the legendary 1969 Woodstock Festival. Jay toured Europe with the band, and in 1997 they were officially invited to perform at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.
Jay's screen career began in television, initially working as an extra in commercials before appearing in the United Nations 50th Anniversary media campaign in 1995, directed by Jeffrey Darling and presented to over 180 world leaders in New York.
His first feature film was the Australian independent production The Sugar Factory, directed by author Robert Carter and starring Matt Day. The film was shot by Academy Award winning cinematographer of The Lord of the Rings, Andrew Lesnie, and had James McTeigue as an assistant director. James later directed V for Vendetta starring Natalie Portman. In 1998, The Sugar Factory won awards at both the Hollywood Film Festival and the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
Jay studied theatre, acting, and education at the University of New South Wales. During this time, he trained in performance devising with members of internationally renowned companies Théâtre du Soleil, Blast Theory, SITI Company, Theatre X Milwaukee, Sydney Front, Complicité, and Gardzienice.
In 2005, Jay worked with Heath Ledger on his directorial debut, Seduction is Evil, She's Hot, a music video for Australian band No Fixed Abode. This experience marked Jay's first immersion in film production and inspired him to pursue further training in the field. He did work experience at Fox Studios Australia (which later was taken over by Disney Studios) and continued his training and studies in acting, film and directing. During this period, he undertook courses, masterclasses, and workshops led by prominent figures including theatre director Peter Brook, playwright Edward Albee and French New Wave auteur Jean-Luc Godard.
Over the years, Jay has worked on films that have won awards at the Berlin, Venice, and Sundance Film Festivals, officially opened the Cannes Film Festival, received Academy Awards and earned Guinness World Record Awards. His work spans music videos starring One Direction, multi-Grammy Award winning band Coldplay and Britney Spears; concerts headlined by Prince, Madonna, Taylor Swift, Cher, Frank Sinatra, Barbara Streisand, Whitney Houston and esteemed film composer Ennio Morricone; and films and live events starring Meryl Streep, Robin Williams, Leonard DiCaprio, screen legends Tony Curtis, Eva Marie Saint and Elizabeth Taylor and movies directed by John Woo, Spike Jonze, Jane Campion, Baz Luhrmann and Steven Spielberg.
As a director, Jay has created films and staged theatre productions, as well as directing photoshoots, voiceover projects, commercials, documentaries, animation, puppetry films and promotional events. He has worked with a diverse range of profiles which included sport star Dan Carter, Miss World Australia, Erin Holland and Disney animator Philip S. Boyd.
