Faculty Profile: Dawn Soler

Dawn Solér was named senior vice president, TV Music, ABC Studios, in December 2010. In this position, she is responsible for all music at ABC Studios and oversees the music content for shows such as “Nashville,” “Once Upon a Time,” “Scandal” and “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” Most recently, she worked closely with composer Alan Menken and executive producer Dan Fogelman on the musical series, “Galavant.” Dawn also produced the on-air music special, “Nashville: On The Record.” She is the founder of the ABC Music lounge and the ongoing series “On The Record.” She and her “On The Record” partner are currently in pre production on three music series for the soon to be launched ABC3.

In 2012, Dawn teamed with Stephen Schwartz and John Ondrasik and created and sold the musical drama project, “Love Story” to ABC. She has currently developing another musical drama, Wilde with John Ondrasik and Chris Lennertz that they created together. Dawn is also partners and co-host with Anastasia Brown and Leslie Sbrooca in creating a daytime show, “The Experts” that they are in pre production, writes a blog, The40PlusGirl and is writing a book called The Be A Girl Principles with her BFF.

Previously, Dawn was vice president, Music, ABC Studios. In this role, she led the way establishing ABC Studios as the prominent leader of music on television. She started a showcase series bringing emerging and current releasing artists on the lot to introduce their talent to ABC executives and producers. This led to the filming of the showcases, which are now on the ABC Music Lounge – an online component located on ABC.com featuring video and music from the ABC line-up -- which was conceived and developed by Ms. Solér along with ABC Marketing.

Dawn began her career at Inaudible Productions, working with notable industry veteran Peter Afterman. In 1990, after starting her own company, Working Music, she went on to create several hit soundtracks for New Line Cinema, including “Now And Then,” “Dumb and Dumber” and “Don Juan De Marco,” which garnered both Academy Award and Grammy Award nominations.

In 1995 she joined PolyGram Film Entertainment, where she created and headed up a music division for the growing film conglomerate. One of her first missions was to help Tim Robbins put together a stellar group of artists (including Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder and Johnny Cash) to write and record songs for “Dead Man Walking.” This gold soundtrack was followed by her music supervision of “Home for the Holidays” and “What Dreams May Come.” As executive in charge of music, she also guided the musical direction for “The Game,” “Gridlock’d,” “Sleepers,” “French Kiss,” “Elizabeth” and “Notting Hill,” among others.

After the dissolution of PolyGram, Ms. Solér went back to her roots of independent music supervision with her company, Working Music. Projects she completed include “Being John Malkovich,” “Princess Diaries I & II,” “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.” She also completed Disney’s “Enchanted,” which garnered three Academy Award and one Grammy nominations, before making her leap from features to television.

Ms. Solér lives in Thousand Oaks with her husband of 19 years, their 11-old daughter, two dogs and 23 chickens. She thrives on gardening, cooking, entertaining at her SILVERSUN RANCH site.