William Ross

William Ross is a prolific composer, orchestrator, and arranger whose projects range from cartoon animation, Academy Award shows, and films of all genres. Though his projects have always been mainstream, he's less than likely to boast about his early work from the late 1980s, when he conducted or orchestrated for such movies as "Hot to Trot," the comedy starring Bobcat Goldthwait and a horse, or the comedy "Ernest Saves Christmas," both from 1988. But Ross was earning steady work, and by 1991, he had won a Daytime Emmy for composing an episode of the cartoon hit "Tiny Toon Adventures." Still, Ross' sweet spot has been populist fare, both in film and in music. During the '90s, he was the orchestrator for the action flop "Last Action Hero," the blockbuster drama "Forrest Gump," and the romantic drama "Waiting to Exhale," the latter of which starred Whitney Houston (for whom Ross also arranged music individually). He has also worked with such big name crooners as Josh Groban and Celine Dion, and in 2009, he won an Emmy for his work with Barbra Streisand--arguably the biggest singer of her generation--as the music arranger for her TV special "Streisand: Live In Concert." That same year, Ross won another Emmy for the original music he contributed to the "81st Annual Academy Awards."One of Ross' consistent collaborators is director Penelope Spheeris, working on her comedies: "The Little Rascals"(1994), the Chris Farley and David Spade-starring "Black Sheep" (1996), and 2011's "Balls to the Wall," starring Mimi Rogers.