Shirley Walker was an American film and television composer and conductor from Napa, California, who began her career in the late 1970s working in orchestration and arrangement before moving into composing scores for Hollywood projects. Her musical style combined orchestral and electronic elements and evolved from behind-the-scenes orchestration to full-scale thematic scoring for film and television, and she is recognised for being one of the relatively few women to build a long-term composing and conducting career in the US entertainment industry.