Wayne Jones is a composer, songwriter, improvising musician, educator, and innovator, best known for his underscore and songs featured in television shows such as White Collar, House M.D., Graceland, The Resident, Criminal Minds, Parenthood, The Daily Show, and RuPaul’s Drag Race. His work across various disciplines is grounded in a deep commitment to narrative and storytelling, using music to illuminate character, emotion, and dramatic arc.
As a media composer, Wayne was commissioned by Google to create original music for the YouTube Audio Library, producing soundtrack cues and songs across genres such as cinematic, pop, ambient, and hip-hop.
His work for film includes music for That Thing You Do, Tuesdays with Morrie, and the Barbra Streisand–Seth Rogen film The Guilt Trip.
As a pianist and keyboardist, Wayne has performed with numerous touring jazz and classical artists, recorded and performed concert works with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and led his own jazz trio in Tokyo and Los Angeles.
His works for advertising include music for the NFL, Viasat, Playtex, Campbell’s Soup, Pfizer, Lever, and the 2008 Obama presidential campaign.
He is also recognized for his work as a songwriter, instrumentalist, and producer, having produced over 60 albums for Lifescapes Music and RedTulip Music, spanning genres including jazz, Latin, and World Music.
Wayne has received numerous television performance awards from SESAC for his underscore compositions for White Collar and Graceland, as well as awards for songs featured in House M.D., Parenthood, and other television shows and films.
He is currently a part-time faculty member at the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music at The New School, where he teaches courses such as Film Scoring, Scoring in the Style Of..., and Sound and Story, and directs the Radiohead, Boygenius, and Yebba ensembles. He also provides private instruction at the Mannes School of Music.
As an educator and mentor, Wayne believes that imagination and the arts are vital to human development and creative innovation, and he is dedicated to helping students harness their own artistic voices through the lens of story, emotion, and expressive intent.
Previously, Wayne spent four years as a Lecturer in Audio Design at the University of Southern California’s Iovine and Young Academy, teaching courses such as Audio & Media Integration, Digital Toolbox: Sound and Audio, and a special topics course exploring the narrative role of sound and audio in product design, environmental design, immersive environments, and multimedia.
In the field of design, Wayne is the co-founder of Vidami and co-inventor of Vidami’s patented foot-controlled devices for looping, slowing down, and navigating video content for friction-free learning on YouTube and over 70 online learning platforms.