BIO
Joop van den Ende was born in Amsterdam on February 23, 1942.
Career as television producer
In 1983, after having produced various plays and theatre shows, Joop van den Ende founded one of the most successful and legendary television companies in the Netherlands. In 1993, his activities as TV producer merged into television company Endemol. Endemol is known for launching the worldwide reality-show craze with the creation of TV formats such as Big Brother and Fear Factor. In 2000, Van den Ende sold Endemol in order to focus fully on theatre.
Career as theatre producer
From the end of the eighties, Van den Ende already produced musical theatre next to his TV activities, starting with BARNUM and CABARET. In 1991 he produced the first Dutch production of LES MISERABLES, establishing him as the foremost musical theatre producer in the Netherlands and marking the beginning of a new era in the Dutch musical theatre genre.
In the early nineties, Van den Ende created his first original musical, CYRANO, which toured the Netherlands to great success and briefly played Broadway. Since then he has brought major titles to the Netherlands, such as THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, AIDA, MISS SAIGON, SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, MAMMA MIA, SWEENEY TODD, LION KING, ELISABETH, TARZAN, MARY POPPINS and WICKED. Original titles include PETTICOAT, CISKE DE RAT, SISTER ACT, and 3 MUSKETIERS.
His theatre production company Stage Holding, recently rebranded as Stage Entertainment, quickly went international. Propelled by collaborations with Disney Theatricals and Littlestar, the company expanded to Germany, Spain, Russia, France, and Italy. Van den Ende currently owns theatres in the Netherlands, Germany, France, and other European countries. In 2004 he opened the Dodger Stages theatre complex (later renamed as the New World Stages theatre complex) in New York, including five venues for off-Broadway productions.