Before Hugh Jackman became Australia's best-known triple threat, another Aussie was being touted as the next big thing in Hollywood after his star turn in one of the biggest films of 2000.
Sydney-born Adam Garcia was the male lead in the cult film Coyote Ugly and many commentators thought he was heading for mega stardom.
But after a stint in the US, where he starred in a film opposite Drew Barrymore, Garcia went back to his roots, taking on more stage roles and even enjoyed stints on reality TV shows both in Australia and the UK, where he now lives with his wife and two daughters.
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Aussie 'triple threat' Adam Garcia was catapulted to fame in the early 2000s. (Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty I)The ballet class that started it all
Adam Garcia was born in Sydney on June 1, 1973, and grew up in Wahroonga on the North Shore.
His mother was a physiotherapist while his dad worked on the stock market. He was educated at the prestigious Knox Grammar School and later attended Sydney University briefly.
Garcia told marie claire in 2011 he attended his first dance lesson when he was seven at the insistence of his best friend.
"My friend Morgan had to go to ballet because his sister had cello lessons next to the studio in Chatswood, Sydney," he explained.
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An early head shot of the Sydney-born performer. (Instagram/@thatadamgarcia)"And being his best friend he said, 'Well, you've got to come with me – I'm not going alone'.
"Apparently, I just said to my mum, who was doing the dishes at the time, 'Mum, I'm going to ballet tomorrow with Morgan.' That was the beginning."
He once told Dance Informa Magazine that after Morgan dropped out, he moved to another dance school operated by his cousin, where he tried tap dancing for the first time.
Garcia told marie claire he was at first "really rubbish."
"Then, after two years, my feet just knew what they were doing," he recalled.
Garcia pictured in 1999 with Natalie Appleton of All Saints fame, not long after his move to London. (PA Images via Getty Images)"I was about 11 at the time. I had no idea how. It was literally a change from one day to the next.
"To me, tap dancing is the combination of an instrument and a dance more than any other format of dance, because you're making music all the time and I like that."
Shift to the stage
It was during his younger years he first encountered Dein Perry, the creator of Tap Dogs. Perry, 11 years his senior, became a mentor.
In 1992, Garcia joined the cast of Aussie musical Hot Shoe Shuffle, which toured Australia.
Garcia played Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever on the West End from 1998 to 2000. (Corbis via Getty Images)"Hot Shoe Shuffle was supposed to be a six-month deferment from university and it turned into a year and a half," Garcia told Dance Informa Magazine.
The show then headed to London's West End in 1994, where it enjoyed a successful run.
In March 2024, Garcia took to Instagram to mark the milestone.
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"30 years in London. March 1, 1994, I arrived to do #thehotshoeshuffle. @christopher_horsey and I went and saw @jamiroquaihq at the London Astoria that very evening. It was the start of a beautiful adventure. Thank you @dae_global (David Atkins) and @deinperry," he wrote.
Garcia stayed in London, joining the West End production of Grease, and appearing in the 1997 British film Wilde, about playwright Oscar Wilde, before returning to the stage to play the lead character Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever from 1998 to 2000.
His cover version of the Bee Gees hit Night Fever made it to number 15 on the UK charts and he was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his role.
The Coyote Ugly explosion
Garcia with Piper Perabo in a scene from Coyote Ugly, the 2000s film that catapulted him to global fame. (Getty)His transition to bona fide Hollywood star came when he won the role of Kevin O'Donnell in the 2000 film, Coyote Ugly.
He reflected on the time during a 2020 interview with The Morning Show to mark the film's 20th anniversary.
"It was actually kind of wild," Garcia said.
"The bar in the film is a completely replicated set and it was packed to the rafters with a great number of extras. So the atmosphere was pretty amazing."
Coyote Ugly cast: Then and now
He also reflected on one of the film's iconic scene where his character dances on the bar.
"The whole thing came about because they realised I was a dancer and they could put the scene in, because it wasn't in the original script," Garcia said.
Watch the video at the top of the page.
"So Travis Payne [choreographer] and I went and choreographed this whole thing and we did it and then they looked at it, and they said, 'You look like a professional dancer.' So they said, 'Make it less pointy-toey.'"
The rise of a star
Garcia performed on stage at the Sydney Olympics Games opening ceremony in 2000. (Facebook/@adamgarcia)By then a big star, Garcia accepted what was then a top secret gig – a starring role in the Sydney Olympic Games opening ceremony.
Garcia told Dance Informa Magazine his turn leading 1000 tap dancers in a routine that was beamed to a global audience of billions of people remains a career highlight.
He took to Facebook in 2019 to share a memory and video of his solo, writing, "I remember telling myself not to start too fast – and almost immediately ignored my own advice. Quickest I've ever done that solo... I guess that was down to the realisation we had a one billion global audience."
He followed this with roles in the 2000 Aussie film Bootmen, the 2001 film Riding In Cars With Boys, opposite Drew Barrymore, and 2004's Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen opposite Lindsay Lohen and Megan Fox, before he returned to London's West End to star as Fiyero in Wicked.
Garcia starred in several Hollywood films, including Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen opposite Lindsay Lohan. (WireImage)Next, he took up a role as a dance teacher in the 2008 British TV series Britannia High.
The following year he played a patient in an episode of the hit US medical drama House, before he became a judge on the UK reality TV show, Got to Dance, for four seasons.
In 2010, he joined the cast of the Tap Dogs revival that performed on London's West End and toured the UK and Australia.
It was a full circle moment for Garcia, who played Sean in Bootmen, which was itself inspired by Tap Dogs.
In a full-circle moment, he joined the cast of Tap Dogs in 2010. (Getty)He told marie claire Perry asked him personally if he wanted to be part of the show.
"It's been 15 years since I've done a tap-dancing show and before my legs fall off I really wanted to challenge myself and see if I could do it," he said.
"I've seen the show so many times and I love doing his choreography and think the show is brilliant and unique.
"So I thought, 'Why wouldn't I want to be a part of it?' Everyone associates me with the show anyway and I would've felt like a fraud if I didn't do it."
Garcia has been married to Nathalia Chubin since 2015. (Instagram/@thatadamgarcia)In 2015, Garcia married long-time girlfriend Nathalia Chubin, who was then heavily pregnant with their first child.
Daughter Arya was born that same year. The couple later welcomed another child, who has never been publicly named.
The following year he starred in the Australian production of Singing in the Rain.
In 2020, he listed his Manly unit for sale, saying his family, including two young children, was based in the UK for the foreseeable future.
The couple pictured late last year at the premiere of Wicked, which Garcia previously starred in. (Getty)Garcia, 51, has continued to act on stage and screen.
He was a judge on Australia's Dancing with the Stars and Dance Boss, and has had roles in big-budget films Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile.
Most recently, he appeared in a 2023 production of 42nd Street in London's West End, which also toured Canada, and played the lead role of Caractacus Pott in a Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang which toured the UK and Ireland.
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