William Henry

William "Billy" Henry is a composer, singer, musician and actor who has been on the music and theater scene for the past 29 years.  He is grateful to be a part of the Texas State Music department. He has done sound design, performed as a musician, and written music for Off-Broadway and many other plays including Harvey Schmitt and Tom Jones’s The Fantasticks and Roadside, Louis Sachar’s Holes, Sondheim’s Assassins, David Sapatico’s, Bad Blood, The Moving Company’s Refugia and has won numerous awards for his work.

Billy has written and performed music for TV, radio and film, including commercials for Southwest Airlines, AT&T, Chili’s, Daisy Sour Cream, Texas Tourism, Bud Light, Sonic, Party of Five, Mustang Makeover, Blue Bell, Rolling Stone Magazine, NASCAR, Discovery Channel, Lone Star and countless others.  He has worked extensively with Paramount Pictures, arranging Henry Mancini tunes, other movie music and producing and arranging the entire Grease soundtrack for the Wii and Xbox gaming consoles. His latest work with Paramount Pictures has been re-recording the music for Paint Your Wagon which has since been used in a commercial for Amazon. 

He has done hundreds of voiceovers for TV, radio and film including Texas Tourism, Schlotzky’s, Southwest Airlines, NASCAR, Guitar Center, Dell, AMD,  Velocity Credit Union, the IMAX film, Texas: The Big Picture, and many more. He has sung on numerous Disney records as the voice of  Sergeant Green of Toy Story and Mike Wazowski of Monsters, Inc. As an actor, he has portrayed the Pirate King in Pirates of Penzance, Curly in Oklahoma, Cinderella’s Prince in Into the Woods and Javert in Les Miserables, Band Leader and News Man in Best Little Whore House in Texas.

Recently, Billy went on a another European and US tour with the Dixie Chicks and continues to work frequently with the Courtyard Hounds. He has recorded bands such as Alabama Shakes, Mumford and Sons, Old Crow Medicine Show and Edward Sharp live. He has worked with musical legends like Don Henley, Martie Maguire, Emily Robison, Sheryl Crow, Dale Watson, Charlie Sexton, Ray Benson, David Grissom, Shawn Colvin, Cindy Cashdollar, Ryan Adams, Patty Griffin and many more.

He is a member of BMI, AES, and The Recording Academy (Grammys),  and has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Vocal Performance, and a Master of Music degree in Composition from Texas State University. He has been teaching music and sound design at the university level since 2003.