Biography

Toni basil has been at the cutting edge of pop culture for the last six decades, an undefinable tour de force, pop culture legend whose career transcends genres, mediums and generations.

A multiple Grammy and Emmy winner and nominee, plus presented with Hip Hop International’s Living Legend of Hip-Hop award. Throughout her extraordinary career, she has choreography and directorial credits on over 50 videos and has collaborated, co-directed, and choreographed groundbreaking concerts and videos for many, including Tina Turner, Bette Midler, David Lee Roth, Mick Jagger, David Byrne, and David Bowie, with whom she coined the phrase “Rock Theatre” in 1974 for the historic Diamond Dogs tour.

Toni Basil is best known for her international double platinum, 1982 Billboard number one hit, “Hey Mickey”. She wrote that catchy chant on the song with Dorsey High cheerleader, Bianca Fields. She received a Gold Album for Word of Mouth and a Grammy nomination in 1984 for her Word of Mouth long-form video album, which she conceptualized, produced, choreographed, and directed.

In 1981, she starred, wrote, co-directed, and choreographed two self-titled BBC- television specials, which included what was to become her hit song, “Hey Mickey”, and her dance fusion of Ballet and Street style. The specials were re- aired in record time due to unprecedented audience response. She credits the BBC UK as launching her singing and dancing pop career.

The video for “Hey Mickey” was installed in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Toni earned herself a place as an American Video Artist in the coveted Museum of Modern Art's 1992 dance calendar, as well as the 1988 cover of Dance Magazine, which she shared with David Byrne.

She is recognized as a seminal influence in bringing street dance in the 1970s to the attention of the American public. Toni is one of the 7 original Lockers. The Lockers, “the group that changed the face of dance”, established street dance as an American art form with Don Campbell’s dance, The Campbellock. Performing on multiple TV shows in the ‘70s and the main show room rooms in Las Vegas, they toured with Frank Sinatra as well as opening at Carnegie Hall with him. In that same year, they performed with the The Ohio Players and Parliament- Funkadelic at Radio City Music Hall. Their audience had no boundaries.

As a consummate Ballet and Street Dancer, she continued to be known for her expert dancing in fusing multiple dance styles. Toni was the first to fuse Street and Ballet dance on SNL with her rendition of Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake”, later re-mounted in 1988 on the Smothers Brothers television special, which garnered her an Emmy nomination.

In 2008 Toni received Hip Hop International's highest award, "Living Legend of Hip Hop." Former recipients include Don Campbellock Campbell, Boogaloo Sam, MC Hammer, DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Caz, Ken Swift and the Jabbawockeez.

Toni was presented with an Emmy award for a commercial featuring MC Hammer. She has worked on an incredible range of television programming, from TV Land’s “Salute to Soul Train”, NAACP Image Awards, Saturday Night Live, Sesame Street, and numerous Music Awards shows.

Toni's most notable feature film credits include choreography for such classics as American Graffiti and Legally Blonde. Her subtle choreographic hand was visible throughout Tom Hanks’ directorial debut; That Thing You Do, and Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, who crowned her “The Goddess of Gogo”. Both films featured the pop culture life of the ‘60s, which takes us a step back to her beginning.

She started her 1962 career in Hollywood after graduating Las Vegas High School as head cheerleader in 1961. Because of her expert dancing in multiple styles, she quickly became a featured dancer in films by her mentor David Winters. As the most sought-after choreography team of the ‘60s, they choreographed multiple TV shows and movies, including the Ann Margret and Elvis Presley Viva Las Vegas, and the iconic TAMI Show. In the late ‘60s, she launched out on her own choreographing Village of the Giants, The Cool Ones, and the Monkees’ film Head.

She recorded a song in ‘67 called “Breakaway”, which became a monumental art film considered the first music video, filmed by the great American artist Bruce Connor.

Toni has acted in numerous films including Oscar nominated Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces, as well as cult classics like Rockula, Slaughterhouse Rock, and Mother, Juggs & Speed.

In the art world of the popular underground films of the ‘60s, Toni created short art films. 16 mm “A Dance Film”, 8 mm "Game of the Week", “Our Trip" 6:25, and "The Ping Pong Match". Pre-dating music videos, these avant garde pieces found a new audience and were exhibited at the Santa Monica Museum of Art and New York's Grey Art Gallery in the “Wallace Berman & His Circle” museum tour. In 2005, The L.A. Times art review by Christopher Knight noted, “With more than 300 works the show is somewhat daunting…don’t miss Toni Basil's film, whose deft editing transforms an ordinary ping pong match between Gray and Stockwell [both noted American actors] into an energetic dance routine.”

Continuing in the family tradition (her father an orchestra leader at the Chicago Theater and the Sahara in Las Vegas and her mother’s vaudevillian family Billy Wells and the Four Fay’s), she credits standing in the wings of the Chicago theater from 1947 to 1957 and seeing over 1000 shows of the greatest performers of that decade as the most important training for her future in show business.

As a classically trained dancer, Toni continues to dance and attend Locking, Hip Hop, and African dance classes by day, and underground dance clubs at night. She continues to judge the iconic Camp Hollywood Lindy Hop competition every Memorial Day. She has immersed herself in the Latin music and dance scene and has guest performed singing, dancing, and playing percussion with the top Los Angeles based salsa bands. She adds to her list of expertise in world dance and partnering Afro/Cuban, Tango, Flamenco, Salsa, east coast and west coast swing.

Toni has excelled in every entertainment medium; stage, music, commercials, television, film, and video. Her unique form of artistic mastery is at the heart of all her work. She remains a true pioneer in the dance world, a visionary, and a genuine American treasure. She stays deeply immersed in the Street Dance community, judging, teaching, and performing at Street Dance events all over the world. She is a noted dance historian and has become a trending viral video artist with her dancing in her 70s and 80s.

Check out her 11-hour oral history for the New York City Public Library, Jerome Robbins Dance Division at Lincoln Center, which is available here and tonibasil.net by visiting the menu.

Toni has always been on the cutting edge of pop culture and shows no sign of stopping. Inducted in The Dancers Hall of Fame, December 12, 2026.

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Representation: Julie McDonald • Tony Selznick • Andrew Jacobs

Click Here to listen to Toni's "Mickey" on your choice of live streaming platform

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