Joel McNeely

Joel McNeely is an Emmy® Award-winning and GRAMMY® Award-nominated composer and conductor with more than 100 motion picture, television, record production, and live concert conducting credits.

McNeely currently scores Fox’s “American Dad!” and Peacock’s “Ted.” Additionally, he scored Hulu’s Emmy-winning series “The Orville,” and composed, conducted and orchestrated the score for Seth MacFarlane’s feature film comedy, A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST. McNeely and MacFarlane also co-wrote an original song for the film, which was performed by country music legend Alan Jackson.

McNeely has produced all nine of MacFarlane’s studio albums, including their highly anticipated Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements, set to release on June 6. The duo’s fourth album, In Full Swing, garnered McNeely two Grammy nominations for “Best Arrangement” and “Best Traditional Pop Album.” He also produced and arranged MacFarlane’s 2015 Grammy-nominated album No One Ever Tells You, which reached #1 on the iTunes Jazz charts, as well as his Christmas album, Holiday for Swing, and MacFarlane’s first big-band and orchestral standard album, Music Is Better Than Words, which received two Grammy nominations.

As a film and television composer, McNeely has worked with respected filmmakers James Cameron, Andrew Davis, Wolfgang Petersen, John Lasseter, George Lucas, and produced/arranged songs for Sara Bareilles, Katy Perry, Norah Jones, Carly Simon, Crosby, Linda Ronstadt, and Rosemary Clooney, among others. He also wrote the music for all of Disney’s popular TINKER BELL films and the entire franchise, spanning theme parks, ice shows and video games. His additional film credits include MULAN 2, GHOSTS OF THE ABYSS, I KNOW WHO KILLED ME, UPTOWN GIRLS, THE AVENGERS, AIR FORCE ONE, among others.

McNeely received the Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Music Composition, was nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction (“The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles”), and was nominated for a Grammy for Outstanding Classical Crossover Album (THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL). Additional television credits include The 2013 Academy Awards, “Dark Angel,” “Sally Hemmings: An American Scandal,” and “Buffalo Soldiers.”

As a conductor, McNeely led the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in an award-winning series of re-recordings of classic film scores. He also conducted both the BBC Concert Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony in a performance of Bernard Herrmann’s music for Hitchcock films, as well as the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in the world premiere of Uri Caine’s “Concerto for Two Pianos.”