Jordi Ortega

Jordi Ortega is a Writer/Director. Born in the province of Barcelona, Spain, he is the founder of the Los Angeles-based media production company Toro Bravo. A student of emotions, Jordi loves working with actors and is also experienced working with people who have never acted before (including children) in projects requiring tremendous flexibility and the use of what's available. A great believer in responsible messages, Jordi's signature is the pursuit of humanity and hope in his stories. Jordi's first films were a series of shorts that he shot with his family's camcorder and edited with a home VCR. He wrote and directed them for his English class while in high school, with his classmates acting in them. He still remembers vividly the expectation that they created and the rush that he felt when they were shown in his classroom. Jordi's career began, however, as an investigative TV journalist. He also worked as an advertising copywriter. His first professional films were the TV documentaries 'El cotxe d'en Xavi' (Xavi's Car) and 'L'habitacio de la Núria' (Nuria's Bedroom), experimental portraits shot in partnership with the characters that aired on Spain's national public television (2000, Gran Angular, REC, La 2, RTVE). 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 the U.S. elections circus, 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 an educational video about the installation process of the Airbox TV digital receiver, as well as 'H,' a short that documented how a State Farm agent became the driver of the first mass-produced hydrogen vehicle in America (a Hyundai). Jordi also delivered 'Because,' a bilingual (English/Mandarin Chinese), multigenerational commercial written and directed by him. Current projects include the half hour TV comedy pilot script 'Summer of the Latin Lovers;' the documentary 'Teen Court,' about a peer/youth court in Watts; a Sci-Fi feature film about space exploration; and songs in multiple genres as a songwriter. Jordi is a member of WGA, SAG and ASCAP, and a proud graduate of Pilar Alessandra's 'On the Page' screenwriting program.