Alumni Awards: Hall of Fame

2025 Hall of Fame Award

Pasek & Paul
Benj Pasek (BFA ’06, musical theatre) and Justin Paul (BFA ’06, musical theatre)

Benj Pasek and Justin Paul are Oscar, Grammy, Tony, Emmy, and Olivier Award-winning songwriters and producers. They are best known for their Oscar, Grammy, and Tony-winning work on La La Land, The Greatest Showman, and Dear Evan Hansen, each of which spawned albums that landed in the Top 10 on the Billboard 200. The Greatest Showman soundtrack spent multiple weeks at #1 and in 2018 was the world’s best-selling album. In 2024, Pasek and Paul won their first Emmy Award as songwriters of Only Murders in the Building and, as a result, achieved EGOT status, joining a rarified list of artists who have won all four major show business prizes.

Additional film and television credits include Apple’s Spirited, Sony’s Lyle, Lyle Crocodile, Disney’s live-action Aladdin and Snow White, Dreamworks Animation’s Trolls, Amazon’s Harlem, Apple’s Dear Edward, NBC’s Smash, The CW’s The Flash, Amazon’s Pink: All I Know So Far (Grammy nomination), and FX’s Welcome to Wrexham. Amongst their varied stage credits, they made their Broadway debut with the musical A Christmas Story (Tony nomination), further adapted into a live telecast for Fox (Emmy nomination), and won their second Tonys for co-producing Best Musical winner A Strange Loop.

Among their countless honors, Pasek and Paul became the youngest winners ever of the Jonathan Larson Award and the first writers for stage or screen to be honored with the ASCAP Vanguard Award. In total, they have each won two Tonys, two Grammys, two Emmys, and an Oscar across six distinct projects, including their most recent 2025 Children’s and Family Emmy Award for writing Sesame Street’s heartwarming anthem “That’s Why We Love Nature,” performed by Brandi Carlile.

2025 Hall of Fame Award

Ian Eisendrath (BMA ’03, voice)

Ian Eisendrath is an Olivier Award-winning and Grammy-nominated music producer, music supervisor, conductor, and arranger for theatre and film.

Eisendrath served as the executive music producer for Disney’s live-action Snow White (starring Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot), Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building Season 3 (starring Meryl Streep, Steve Martin, Martin Short, Paul Rudd, and Selena Gomez), Apple Original Films’ Spirited (starring Ryan Reynolds, Will Ferrell, and Octavia Spencer), Sony Animation’s Kpop Demon Hunters, and Sony Pictures’ Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile (starring Shawn Mendes, Javier Bardem, and Constance Wu).

Eisendrath is also the music supervisor, conductor, and arranger for the critically acclaimed stage musical Come from Away (Broadway, London, Australia, Toronto, North American tour). Past credits include music supervisor and conductor for A Christmas Story (Broadway, North American tour) and music supervisor and arranger for Diana: The Musical (Broadway).

Other recent credits include music supervisor and conductor for Fox’s A Christmas Story Live, Apple TV’s live capture of Come from Away, and Netflix’s live capture of Diana: The Musical. Eisendrath produced the soundtracks for Spirited, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, Come from Away, A Christmas Story Live, and Diana: The Musical.

In addition to his freelance work, Eisendrath held the full-time position of music supervisor and director of new work development at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre from 2003–16.