EXCLUSIVE: Disney music vet Tom MacDougall has been named President, Walt Disney Music.
MacDougall’s promotion comes in the wake of the studio’s Fox acquisition and recent content & distribution reorganization. Disney Studios Content is consolidating production of music for its live-action and animated content –both theatrical and streaming– across the Disney, Disney Animation, Pixar, Blue Sky, 20th Century Studios, and Searchlight brands.
Recently MacDougall has led creative strategy and production of music for Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar since 2005. As EVP, Music, for Disney Animation and Pixar, MacDougall worked directly with filmmakers – from concept through storyboarding, production reels to final film – selecting the best composers, songwriters, and performers for Disney’s animated releases including signing Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez to Frozen, who went on to win two Oscars for their songwriting on Frozen and Coco, and a pre-Hamilton Lin-Manuel Miranda to Moana. MacDougall joined Disney in 1993 in Buena Vista International’s character voices department and moved to Disney’s feature animation division in 1995.
In his new post, MacDougall will report to Disney Studios Content Chairman Alan Bergman.
Longtime Fox vet Danielle Diego will continue to lead music for 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures. She’ll report to MacDougall, as will Kaylin Frank and the Disney Live Action team. In addition, Matt Walker will now spearhead music for Disney’s animation studios.
MacDougall earned a Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media for Frozen, which also won an Academy Award for Original Song for “Let It Go,” and he was recently Grammy-nominated for the Frozen 2 soundtrack, which earned an Oscar nomination for “Into the Unknown.” He was the Executive Music Producer for the Oscar-winning “Remember Me” from Coco and the Oscar-nominated songs “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana and “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away” from Toy Story 4.
His feature credits also include the Disney animated feature productions Hercules, Mulan, Fantasia/2000, Lilo & Stitch, The Princess and the Frog, Wreck-It Ralph and Ralph Breaks The Internet (including co-writing the Oscar shortlisted song “A Place Called Slaughter Race”), Big Hero 6, and Zootopia, as well as all of Pixar’s feature films, including the Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., the Incredibles franchise, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up (which won the Oscar for Michael Giacchino Original Music Score), Brave, Inside Out, and Soul.
In addition to working with such renowned composers, songwriters, and artists as Giacchino, Alan Menken, Jerry Goldsmith, Randy Newman, Danny Elfman, James Newton Howard, and Alan Silvestri, MacDougall has identified and produced music for a diverse group of artists including Ludwig Göransson, Sia, Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, Jon Batiste, Mumford and Sons, Shakira, Julia Michaels, Brandi Carlile, Imagine Dragons, Miguel, Fall Out Boy, Panic! At the Disco, Kacey Musgraves, Chris Stapleton, and Andra Day.
MacDougall is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.