Loyola’s College of Music and Media has announced that Jonathan McHugh is the college’s new Hilton-Baldridge Chair. As Hilton Baldridge Chair at Loyola, he will enjoy an endowed professorship, helping to steer the university’s Music Industry Studies program, where students aspire to work in the music industry as executives, producers, recording engineers, performing artists and more. He is graduate of Tulane, and is a longtime fan of New Orleans music, a renowned independent film and television producer, director, and music supervisor who has held high-ranking creative and marketing positions at some of the nation’s top entertainment companies.

McHugh joins Loyola after seven years as an adjunct professor and student advisor at American University’s KOGOD Business School B.A.E program in Washington, DC. Combining his decades of record label, publishing, soundtrack production, directing/producing and music supervision experiences, he has developed and taught several well-reviewed courses including: The Business of Visual Media, The Streaming Revolution, and Advanced Issues in Entertainment.

While at American University, he orchestrated numerous student trips to Los Angeles, New York and Nashville and created the “Up Close” series, where music industry experts and leaders spoke to students and introduced them to potential internships and jobs. The series mirrors Loyola’s weekly Music Industry Studies Forum, a speaker series that brings industry stars and experts to campus.

Jonathan McHugh

McHugh is also an independent film and television producer/director/music supervisor, and has held high ranking creative and marketing positions at some of the world’s top entertainment companies, including New Line Cinema/Warner Films, Zomba/ Sony Films & Music as well as Def Jam Film/Universal Music.

He has just directed two pop culture documentary films: Long Live Rock … Celebrate the Chaos, focused on the passion of the hard rock music fan, and Cosplay Universe, about the transformative nature of the cosplay culture. In addition, McHugh has produced 35 films and TV shows about some of pop culture’s biggest stars and pop culture icons, including Justin Bieber, Britney Spears, Janis Joplin, Snoop Dogg, Muhammad Ali, Ludacris and Motley Crew‘s Tommy Lee, and shows like Sun Records for the Viacom network.

McHugh has also music-supervised and produced soundtracks for more than 100 visual media projects including Austin Powers, The Wedding Singer, Rush Hour, the Saw series and most recently, the film and Starz TV series Blindspotting.  He is currently music-supervising season two of the animated Freak Brothers series for Lionsgate/Fox/Tubi.  The comedy features the voices of Tiffany Haddish, Pete Davidson and Woody Harrelson.

McHugh is a member of the Television Academy (Emmy Awards), a Producers Guild Documentary jury member, a former trustee of the Recording Academy (Grammy Awards) and past president of the Los Angeles chapter. He is the co-founder of the Guild of Music Supervisors.