Germaine Franco is an American composer, working most famously in animated features for Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios. A Long Beach native, she graduated from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in 1984, after which she began working as a composer for various independent features, documentaries, television series, and attractions. She started working in various roles on films such as The Italian Job, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Kung Fu Panda. In 2017, the Pixar animated film Coco was released to much acclaim and Germaine Franco worked on the soundtrack, co-writing five of the six original songs along with screenwriter and co-director Adrian Molina, as well as contributing additional music and co-orchestrating the score. Her work on Coco earned her the Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement for Music in an Animated Feature. Germaine Franco also worked on the score for two hit Netflix films, Work It and The Sleepover. She also composed the score for the Hulu animated film Curious George: Go Wild. 2021 saw the release of the Disney animated film Encanto, for which Germaine Franco composed the original score pieces. The accompanying soundtrack album Encanto (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) includes the original songs composed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, as well as Germaine Franco’s orchestral score. Germaine Franco is also the first Latina invited to join the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences music branch.
