Courtney Platt grew up in Dix Hills, Long Island with incredible parents and two younger brothers. Bit by the dancing bug at the tender age of three, she began her professional dance career as a New York Knicks City Dancer in 2006. While studying Special Education at Manhattan College in 2009, she rolled the dice and auditioned for FOX’s hit reality competition series So You Think You Can Dance. She booked the show and danced her way into America’s heart, all the way to a top-four spot in the season finale. She returned to SYTYCD two more times as an All-Star and twice anchored their touring show, including a stop at Madison Square Garden for “Courtney Night” at her hometown arena.
Courtney has danced for dozens of notable artists, including Pitbull (Latin Grammys), Jennifer Lopez (Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Years Eve), Jack Black (Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards), Adam Lambert (American Music Awards), Demi Lovato (Good Morning America), Natasha Bedingfield, FloRida, Enrique Iglesias, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, and Snoop Dogg.
Courtney has also worked as an assistant choreographer, pulling double duty both on-stage and behind-the-scenes for Hair at the Hollywood Bowl (where she met her now husband, Jonah) and on last year’s Emmy-winning telecast of Grease: Live on FOX. Additionally, she choreographed and performed in The Simpsons: 25th Anniversary extravaganza at the Hollywood Bowl.
Courtney’s career has flourished most on-screen, as a featured dancer in a number of notable films and TV shows, including Rock of Ages (directed by Adam Shankman), Disney’s Camp Rock 2, Saturday Night Live, Nickelodeon’s Big Time Rush, The Chipmunks Movie, and Stand Up Guys (opposite Al Pacino). She appeared multiple times on the smash FOX musical series Glee, as well as in the theatrical release Glee Live 3D, and as a performer on the Glee Live World Tour. Most recently, she has starred as “Desiree”, one of the Los Angeles Devil Girls, on all three seasons of the hit VH1 series Hit The Floor. She begins shooting Season Four this fall, as the show switches to VH1’s Viacom sister network BET.
Outside of the commercial dance world, Courtney, along with her brother Vincent, created The Beat Dance Tour, a boutique pop-up dance convention, featuring master classes from renowned dance professionals for dancers of all ages. The Beat Dance Tour operated from 2012-2016, giving dancers across America a chance to hone their skills in a safe, loving, and challenging environment unique to the dance convention world.
Courtney currently works as a fitness instructor at Rise Nation in West Hollywood (what she considers “the best workout in the world!”) Her energy and enthusiasm help whip hundreds of Angelenos into shape, from pregnant moms to NBA stars. She recently helped devise and run the training program for instructors at the company’s brand new facility in Cleveland. She strongly urges you to come take one of her classes (first class is free!)
On February 1, 2012 Courtney was diagnosed with Relapse and Remitting Multiple Sclerosis, after experiencing a number of unsettling symptoms while on the Season 7 So You Think You Can Dance Tour. While performing, her lower body went numb from the waist down, and she experienced shocks down her spine, which she now knows was Lhermitte’s Sign. Her doctors at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York found lesions on her brain and plaque on her spinal cord.
Upon receiving the diagnosis, Courtney immediately sprang into action. Courtney already had a relationship with the National MS Society, having long supported her maternal grandmother Rosemarie’s battle with Primary Progressive MS. Along with her friend Phillip Byron, Courtney established the The Beat MS Dance Walk, an annual event in Los Angeles to encourage people living with MS, and their loved ones, to move their bodies and have fun while raising money for research and patient services. Collectively, The Beat MS Dance Walk, plus Courtney’s teams for Walk MS, have raised over a quarter of a million dollars for the MS Society. Courtney currently serves on the Board of Directors for Can Do MS and on the Young Professionals Board of the MS Society.
Courtney is incredibly thankful for the unwavering support of her amazing husband Jonah Platt, her parents Toniann & Vincent Galiano, her mother & father-in-law Julie and Marc Platt, her wonderful brothers Charles & Vincent, sister-in-laws Stephanie, Hannah and Samantha, and brother-in-laws Ben, Henry and Michael. She would also like to thank her extended Galiano and Platt families, as well as her unbelievable community of friends and supporters across the country. And finally, a tremendous and heartfelt thank you to all those working day in and day out to find a cure for MS.