Will Kaplan / Principal Editor

Born and raised in the northern suburbs of Chicago, Will worked as a commercial producer and jingle writer in that city during the 80’s. He produced hundreds of spots for clients including: McDonald’s, Purina, Pizza Hut and Budweiser. As a music producer, he worked on campaigns for Marshall Fields, McDonald’s, Chevrolet, the Armed Forces Radio Network and ABC-TV.

Moving to Los Angeles in 1988, Will was fortunate enough to make the acquaintance of legendary music editor Bob Badami and began working with him on a string of features for Bruckheimer Films including “Crimson Tide”, “Armageddon”, “Gone in 60 Seconds” and “Remember The Titans”. During that time he met and became the first music editor for composer Trevor Rabin. He has also been a guest editor on the teams of Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, Alan Sylvestri, John Debney, Chris Beck along with many others.

The temp work for Steven Spielberg on a film called “Little Giants” brought Will to the attention of Warner Bros Studios. After doing extensive editorial on the final score for “Eraser”, Will was made the music editorial consultant for the Studio in 1999 and has been ever since. During this time Will has stepped in to make creative solutions for dozens of Warner Bros. films, while still working for all the other studios in town on individual projects.

A few little known facts about Will:

• He wrote Oprah Winfrey’s first jingle, “Everybody Loves Oprah”, which was featured on “60 Minutes”.
• He knew late filmmaker John Hughes before and after he left advertising to become a spectacularly successful filmmaker.
• He played the background trumpet in the apartment house scene in “Drugstore Cowboys”.
• He is the pianist on the (in)famous “Animal Crackers” scene in Armageddon.
• He has composed over three dozen original source cues for movies he has worked on.
• Like many other music editors, he had a failed career as a rock ‘n roller.

Will is married to vocalist Ember Vaughan and they have a son, Daniel. Will and Ember continue to perform together in various bands throughout Los Angeles.