Greg O'Connor

Greg O'Connor is a composer and songwriter who has composed scores for over 30 television series and has written over numerous featured songs for TV, films and commercials. He is a Primetime Emmy winner and a four-time Emmy nominee. He has scored projects including variety, single camera comedy, multi camera comedy, animation, one hour drama, game show, sketch comedy, award show, stand up, reality, hidden camera, documentary, commercials and virtual reality.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]

For the New Zealand politician, see Greg O'Connor (politician).
Greg O'Connor
Born
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Education
OccupationComposer, songwriter, producer
Years active1990–present
Awards2006 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics, for "A Wonderfully Normal Day" - MAD TV
Websitewww.gregoconnor.com

Early life

O'Connor was born in Philadelphia. O'Connor is a graduate of The University of Notre Dame’s Music School as well as the Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television Program at USC.[10][11] He began studying music at age six, taking piano lessons at the Bryn Mawr Conservatory of Music in Bryn Mawr PA, a suburb of Philadelphia. O'Connor also played alto saxophone for eight years. His education included performing in various ensembles, either as a pianist, saxophonist or vocalist, including concert band, jazz band, glee club and various top 40 bands throughout high school and college.[12][13]

Career

Early in his career, O'Connor wrote the score for the Emmy Award-winning Ben Stiller Show and The Sunday Comics on FOX. He also composed the underscore for all three seasons of the hidden camera series The Jamie Kennedy Experiment and the ABC Aaron Spelling cop drama 10-8, starring Ernie Hudson and Danny Nucci.[14][15]

He has written two Billboard Top 20 songs with collaborator James Pankow for the band Chicago, as well as the song "Here With Me" for the Chicago album Stone of Sisyphus.[16][17] He produced five songs for the Barry Manilow album The Greatest Songs of the Eighties, as well as Manilow's hit Christmas single "Christmas is Just Around the Corner." [18][19][20][21][22]

O'Connor was the composer, songwriter and musical director for all 14 seasons of the hit sketch comedy show Mad TV,[23] David Allen Grier’s comedy series Chocolate News, Jeff Foxworthy’s variety show Blue Collar TV and Bob Einstein’s series Super Dave Spike-Tacular. Additionally, he was the musical director and composer for the ABC reality competition series The Next Best Thing.[24]

O'Connor most recently wrote and produced two songs for the film The Greening of Whitney Brown, starring Kris Kristofferson, Aiden Quinn and Brooke Shields, one of which was performed by Shields. He wrote and produced three featured songs for Lori Petty’s directorial feature film debut, The Poker House, as well as two featured songs in the Lego movie Clutch Powers. O'Connor produced and wrote songs for the animated Lionsgate movie Foodfight and produced two songs for Curb Records artist Kimberley Locke on the Camille soundtrack for Oscar-winning producer Al Ruddy.[25][26]

O'Connor wrote all the opening songs for the ABC summer series Greatest Hits, produced by Grammy producer Kenneth Ehrlich. He also composed all the music for a reboot of Mad TV on the CW. He wrote the theme song for the series Gay Skit Happens with two members of the Grammy winning vocal group Pentatonix. In the science fiction thriller genre, O'Connor also scored the virtual reality series Defrost, directed by Randal Kleiser, which is one of the first long form dramatic series in this new groundbreaking genre.[9] O'Connor co-wrote the theme song with actor Will Sasso for his Ten Minute Podcast starring Will, Chris D’Elia and Bryan Callan.[27][28]

Awards
Year Award Project Category Result
2008 Primetime Emmy Awards Mad TV - "Sad Fitty Cent" Outstanding Music and Lyrics Nominated[29]
2007 Primetime Emmy Awards Mad TV - "Merry Ex-Mas" Outstanding Music and Lyrics Nominated[30]
2007 BMI Film & TV Awards Mad TV BMI Film & TV Awards Won[31]
2006 Primetime Emmy Awards Mad TV - "A Wonderfully Normal Day" Outstanding Music and Lyrics Won[32]
2001 Primetime Emmy Awards Mad TV - "Mole Folks Song" Outstanding Music and Lyrics Nominated[33]

References
  1. "Artist Biography". cdbaby.
  2. "SCL gathers notable songwriters for musicale". filmmusicsociety.
  3. "2006 Emmy nominations list – part 2". Variety.
  4. "Greg O'Connor". hollywood.
  5. "Composer Bio". emmys.
  6. "Greg O'Connor: 'MAD TV' Fox 'JKX: the Jamie Kennedy Experiment' the WB.(who scores primetime)". Business Highbeam. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05.
  7. "Greg O'Connor". IMDb.
  8. "Emmy Winning Composer Greg O'Connor Scores Big". The Hollywood 360.
  9. "Defrost A Virtual Reality Movie Thawing the Audience's Point of View 360 Degrees". The Hollywood 360.
  10. "BMI Composers Score at 2006 Creative Emmys". BMI.
  11. Burlingame, Jon. "Callery Wins Second Emmy". film music society.
  12. "Emmy Winning Composer Greg O'Connor Scores Big - The Hollywood 360". The Hollywood 360.
  13. "PrepNews Winter 2012 by St. Joseph's Preparatory School - Issuu". PrepNews Winter 2012.
  14. "Greg O'Connor – Composer/Songwriter". gregoconnor.
  15. "XXXII: Stone Of Sisyphus". allpines.
  16. "Chicago (2) – The Only One". discogs.
  17. "AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine". allmusic.
  18. "Barry Manilow – The Greatest Songs Of The Eighties". discogs.
  19. "Zanelli, Shearmur Among First-time Honorees". filmmusicsociety.
  20. "Heartwarming Sitcom Theme". hamfatter. Archived from the original on 2011-05-24. Retrieved 2016-01-14.
  21. "Greg O'Connor". artistdirect.
  22. "Filmography". soundtrack.
  23. "Mad TV Cast Reunion". patkilbane.
  24. "BMI Salutes Emmy Nominees". BMI.
  25. "2006 Creative Arts Awards". zimbio.
  26. "Greg O'Connor". ebscohost.
  27. "TMP – We Are Friends by Ten Minute Podcast - Free Listening on SoundCloud". SoundCloud.
  28. "TMP - Not That New by Ten Minute Podcast - Free Listening on SoundCloud". SoundCloud.
  29. "Music Emmy Nominations Announced". filmmusicmag.
  30. "Greg O'Connor". Emmys.
  31. "BMI Film & Television Awards Salute Composers of Top Movie, TV Music". BusinessWire.
  32. "2006 Creative Arts Emmys Press Room photo". Zimbio.
  33. "BMI Salutes Emmy Nominees". BMI.
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