John William Kavanaugh is an American composer, lyricist and musical director who is currently serving as songwriter for Disney Television Animation. He is the recipient of 9 Emmy nominations and was awarded the 2014 Daytime Emmy Award for Sofia The First Main Title theme song with co-lyricist Craig Gerber. While working on Sofia The First, John was tapped to write songs for Disney's First Latina princess, the award-winning Elena of Avalor. John penned the songs and served as music director on the series Alice's Wonderland Bakery which premiered in February of 2022. In 2023, he earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Original Song for "The Hat Makes The Hatter," co-written with lyricists Chelsea Beyl and Marisa Evans-Sanden, and the trio repeated their success in December 2024 with another nomination for "Let Your Wish Carry You Away" from season two.
His songs can also be heard in several hit movies, including Disney's Descendants 3 (My Once Upon a Time), Winnie The Pooh film "Springtime with Roo" and Nickelodeon's "Globehunters". He co-wrote the scores to "Curious George Live" for NBC Universal, "Dreams are Universal" for Universal Studios Japan, "Flintstones: The Musical" for Universal Studios Hollywood, as well as numerous songs for Sesame Street Live and Tokyo DisneySea. With lyricist Marcy Heisler, John wrote the song Joseph's Lullaby for Michael Crawford which appears on his album On Eagle's Wings.
Personal life.
John, (John William Kavanaugh) is the son of Edward Houston Kavanaugh and Eileen Kirby Gunn and is the youngest of six children. He grew up in Norfolk, Virginia and developed his passion for music by watching his mother play the piano and create/direct many variety shows in Norfolk. He graduated from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida and began working at Disney World in 1983. He then moved to Los Angeles in 1986 to work for Disneyland where he soon began his composing career writing for theatre, theme parks worldwide and eventually for television.
He is married to Efren Gonzalez and resides in Los Angeles, California.
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