Marc Shaiman
Mirabal at the 2025New York Film Festival
Born	(1959-10-22)October 22, 1959 (age 66) Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupations	Composer lyricist
Spouse	Louis Mirabal ​ (m. 2016)​
Website	marcshaiman.com

Marc Shaiman (/ˈʃeɪmən/SHAY-mən; born October 22, 1959) is an American composer and lyricist for films, television, and theatre, best known for his collaborations with lyricist and directorScott Wittman, actorBilly Crystal, and directorRob Reiner. Shaiman has receivednumerous accolades including twoGrammy Awards, twoPrimetime Emmy Awards, and aTony Award. He has also received sevenAcademy Award nominations.

Shaiman was born to aJewish family inNewark, New Jersey, on October 22, 1959, the son of Claire (née Goldfein) and William Robert Shaiman.^[1][2] He grew up inScotch Plains, New Jersey, where he attendedScotch Plains-Fanwood High School, but he left school at age 16 to start working in New York's theaters; he later obtained aGED.^[3]

Shaiman started his career as a theatre/cabaret musical director. He started working atSaturday Night Live as an arranger/writer. He portrayedSkip St. Thomas, the accompanying pianist forThe Sweeney Sisters, a singing duo played byNora Dunn andJan Hooks, which earned him an Emmy nomination; he returned for an appearance onTheSaturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special, having co-createdMartin Short andMaya Rudolph's salute to musical sketch characters.^[4] He began his professional relationships withBilly Crystal andMartin Short during his tenure at the show. He also was a vocal arranger forBette Midler, eventually becoming her musical director and co-producer of many of her recordings, including "The Wind Beneath My Wings" and "From a Distance." He helped create the material for her performance on the penultimateThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. His work with both Midler andBilly Crystal led to his involvement on their films. He later produced Midler's albumIt's the Girls, which had the highest debut of Midler's recording career on theBillboard Album charts, and co-wrote Crystal's farewell toJay Leno which featuredCarol Burnett andOprah Winfrey among others.

His filmcredits includeBroadcast News,Beaches,When Harry Met Sally...,City Slickers,The Addams Family,Sister Act,Sleepless in Seattle,A Few Good Men,The American President,The First Wives Club,George of the Jungle,In & Out,Patch Adams,South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut,Team America: World Police,Hairspray,Flipped,Mary Poppins Returns and HBO'sFrom the Earth to the Moon and61*. On television, he worked on the final performances forJohnny Carson'sTonight Show (withBette Midler),Conan O'Brien'sLate Night (withNathan Lane), both of Jay Leno's finalTonight Show broadcasts, and Nathan Lane's farewell toDavid Letterman called "Dead Inside."

Shaiman has earned sevenAcademy Award nominations, aTony Award and aGrammy Award for his work on themusicalHairspray, and anEmmy Award for co-writing Billy Crystal's Academy Award performances. He has also been Grammy-nominated for his arrangements for Harry Connick Jr.'s recordingsWhen Harry Met Sally... andWe Are in Love as well asHairspray andSmash and Emmy-nominated for his work onSaturday Night Live andSmash. In 2002, he was honored with the "Outstanding Achievement in Music-In-Film" award atThe Hollywood Film Festival, and in 2007 he was honored withASCAP'sHenry Mancini Award in recognition of his outstanding achievements and contributions to the music of film and television.^[5] He is the first recipient of the Film & TV Music Award for Best Score for a Comedy Feature Film. He wrote and sang the song "Yes" for his agent's filmFinding Kraftland, and co-wrote (with partnerScott Wittman) songs forNeil Patrick Harris when Harris hosted the63rd Tony Awards (2009) and the61st Primetime Emmy Awards (2009), and was Emmy-nominated for musical directing and co-writing the82nd Academy Awards (2010).

Shaiman co-produced and co-wrote cuts on Mariah Carey's 2010 Christmas albumMerry Christmas II You. He and Wittman wrote original songs for the musical-based television show for NBC,Smash, which ran from 2012 to 2013, and served as executive producers. For their song "Let Me Be Your Star," Shaiman and co-lyricist Wittman were nominated for both an Emmy Award and a Grammy Award, and as executive producers they were nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series - Comedy or Musical.

Shaiman and Wittman were honored on April 28, 2014, byThe New York Pops Orchestra atCarnegie Hall.^[4] The following year,Jennifer Hudson sang theSmash song "I Can't Let Go" at the87th Academy Awards during the in memoriam tribute, featuring revised lyrics. The duo's Broadway musicalCharlie and the Chocolate Factory ran on Broadway at theLunt-Fontanne Theatre, after finishing a four-year run on London's West End at The Royal Drury Lane Theater. Shaiman was Tony-nominated for his orchestrations for their previous Broadway musicalCatch Me If You Can. In 2021, they wrote a song titled "Save the City" for theMarvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in-universe Broadway production titledRogers: The Musical featured in the first episode ofHawkeye, "Never Meet Your Heroes".^[6] It was released as a single on November 24, the day the episode became available onDisney+.^[7]

In February 2021, it was announced that Shaiman and Wittman were writing songs for a newmusical adaptation ofSome Like It Hot, which premiered on Broadway in 2022 with a book byAmber Ruffin andMatthew Lopez.^[8]

In 2008, a controversy erupted nationwide whenCalifornia Musical Theatre's then artistic director Scott Eckern^[9][10] resigned over the revelation of his personal donation of $1,000 to a political campaign to supportCalifornia Proposition 8, an amendment which enshrined into theCalifornia Constitution that "only marriage between a man and a woman [was] recognized in California". After the amendment was passed, donor information became public. Shaiman and other Broadway artists who had previously worked with the director became critical and called for a boycott of the theatre by all gay artists and performers, ending in the director's resignation days later.

To protest the passage of California Proposition 8 in November 2008, Shaiman wrote a satiric mini-musicalProp 8 – The Musical. The three-minute video was distributed on the internet atFunnyOrDie.com, beginning on December 3, 2008. It was written and produced in just a few days. The cast includesJack Black (who plays Jesus),Neil Patrick Harris,John C. Reilly,Allison Janney,Andy Richter,Maya Rudolph,Margaret Cho, andRashida Jones. Shaiman plays the piano and appears briefly in the video. It received 1.2 million internet hits in its first day.^[11][12]

Shaiman is openly gay,^[13] and married Louis Mirabal, a retiredlieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy, on March 26, 2016.^[14] He lives in bothManhattan andupstate New York.

Shaiman's memoir,Never Mind the Happy: Showbiz Stories From a Sore Winner, is set to be published in January 2026.^[15]

• Prop 8 - The Musical (2008) (composer, lyricist, pianist) - 2009 "Webby" winner for Best Comedy: Short or Individual Episode
• Soundtrack of Our Lives: A Celebration for the Film and TV Music Community (2020) ("The End Titles" song)

For his work as a composer and lyricist for films, television, andtheatre, Shaiman has received numerous accolades including twoEmmy Awards, twoGrammy Awards and aTony Award as well as nominations for sevenAcademy Awards, twoBAFTA Awards, and twoGolden Globe Awards. He earned theHollywood Film Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music and Film in 2002.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toMarc Shaiman.

• Marc Shaiman atIMDb
• Marc Shaiman at theInternet Broadway Database
• Marc Shaiman at theInternet Off-Broadway Database (archived)
• The Musical Mind of Marc Shaiman
• MusicalTalk Interview with Marc Shaiman

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