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ROBERT MONTANO was raised in Hempstead, LI, close enough to Belmont Park Racetrack where he had his first career as a professional racehorse jockey. However, by age 18, Mother Nature caught up to him and outgrew his silks. Smitten by the film Saturday Night Fever, Robert traded his jockey boots for ballet slippers and applied to Adelphi Universities dance department at age 20 without any prior training. He was accepted and offered a full scholarship. One week shy of graduating, he booked his first professional job in Cats.
His career took off jumping from one show to the next, working with great directors and choreographers such as Hal Prince, Rob Marshall and Jerome Robbins. He has also had the pleasure of working with the legendary, Chita Rivera in Kiss of the Spiderwoman, as well as her act Chita Plus Two. He sang and danced with Peter Allen in Legs Diamond and starred as Ozzie in On The Town, directed by the innovative George C. Wolfe.
But he couldn’t contain his creative scope to only musical theatre, so he ventured into plays, film, and television.
He has created roles for the Academy Award nominated writer Jose Rivera in Cloud Tectonics and References To Salvador Dali Makes Me Hot, Lynn Nottages play Fabulation, Bess Wohl’s Barcelona, Tira Palmquist’s Two Degrees, Ken Lin’s Fallow, Richard Vetere’s One Shot One Kill, and Edwin Sanchez’s Diosa. At Actors Theatre of Louisville, Robert was given the honor to portray Cal in the epic of East Of Eden, directed by Jon Jory and later was invited back to exercise his Shakespeare in Comedy Of Errors. He has also played Ralph opposite John C. Reilly in Marty.
Television: Guest starred in Showtime's City on a Hill, Bull, Prodigal Son, Blue Bloods, NCIS: New Orleans, Elementary, Search Party, Sex In The City, CSI: Miami, Law & Order and HBO’s film Undefeated, directed by John Leguizamo.
Film: Shame with Michael Fassbender, played opposite Mark Wahlberg and Joaquin Phoenix in The Yards, partnered Catherine Zeta-Jones in Chicago. Among other notable work is Center Stage, It Runs in The Family, and Passionada.