Tom Harrison is a composer originally from Moray, Scotland. To date, his compositions have been used in over 200 different television series including Saturday Night Live, The Today Show, The Voice, NFL Football, WWE: Raw and many others. He is currently composing and arranging for various projects, working towards a PhD in Composition at the Royal College of Music and running his production music libraries Ringside Tracks and ClearBop.

 

After graduating with a BMus in Film Scoring summa cum laude from Berklee College of Music, he spent 10 years working in Hollywood on some of television’s most successful shows. This began with a series of musical assistant jobs working for composers Deborah Lurie (Footloose, Spiderman 3), W. G. Snuffy Walden (The West Wing, Friday Night Lights), Christopher Tyng (Futurama, Suits) and an internship with Alf Clausen on The Simpsons. 

 

Arguably the most important breakthrough came when he was hired by composer John M. Keane as the music assistant on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, the #1 television series in the world at the time. He spent 3 years as Keane’s protégé, working on music editorial, arranging and orchestration for the programme. The pair also worked on the music for Horns, a feature film starring Daniel Radcliffe. In 2024, Harrison worked as the Arranger for season 3 of CSI: Vegas.

 

Following the close of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation’s original run (the 7th longest in US drama history) and after brief stints working for Mike Regan (Powerpuff Girls, God of War) and Oscar-winner Mychael Danna (Life of Pi), Harrison decided to focus on his own composing career. He has produced 10 albums for APM including “Unsettled Business 2” written at the direction of Discovery Channel producers. He runs two music libraries, both of which have worldwide distribution by Bulletproof Bear. Harrison is a huge professional wrestling fan; in addition to several placements with WWE, he composed the custom entrance theme for Ring of Honor tag team Lifeblood. The Lifeblood theme was played during the G1 Supercard at wrestling’s most prestigious venue Madison Square Garden. The G1 Supercard is the only wrestling event to be produced at MSG by a promotion other than WWE post-1960. 

 

In addition to his composing career, he has worked extensively as a songwriter and a musical director. He was the musical director, guitarist and pianist for a production of Green Day’s American Idiot: The Musical in North Hollywood, a USA tour with Damian McGinty (Glee) and a tour of China with Nashville-based country singer Jackson Wells. Harrison co-wrote two original songs with McGinty on his #2 Billboard Holiday album This Christmas Time.

 

Harrison is a former Senior Lecturer in Composition for Screen and Music Theory at the Academy of Contemporary Music and is currently Lecturer in Composition for Screen at BIMM University London and The University of West London. He is an active voting member and judge for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (EMMYs), a professional member of BAFTA and the former chair of the music judging committee for the ASIFA Hollywood Annie Awards. He holds an MMus in Composition with Distinction from King's College London and is Fellow of the London College of Music (Composition). His book How to Become a Film Composer was published globally by Centerstream and Hal Leonard in 2018. 

 

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