Composer Talk

I'm very fortunate to welcome this  Emmy Award-winning composer, pianist, animation enthusiast, and friend.

Born in 1989 in Los Angeles, this composer defies genre while paying homage to his jazz roots and introducing alternative and R&B influences. He scored documentaries like Kobe Bryant’s Muse and Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You, as well as scripted series including Shonda Rhimes and Paul William Davies’ For The People, Netflix’s Dear White People, and SHOWTIME’S Black Monday. In 2011, he was awarded the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition and went on to perform with and for artists including Marcus Miller, Jay-Z, and Q-Tip.

In 2018, this unstoppable composer played double duty scoring and also playing Mahershala Ali's on-screen hand double in Academy Award-winning film, Green Book. In 2019, he scored Ava Duvernay's Netflix miniseries, When They See Us, about the Central Park Five. This year, in 2020, he scored HULU show Mrs. America, has music in the forthcoming Madden 2020 video game, and he is working on the score for the upcoming Malcolm D. Lee film Space Jam 2!

The composer is... Kris Bowers

Our next guest is well known as the composer of Disney's "Gravity Falls" and Dreamworks/Netflix show “Voltron”.

Originally from Illinois, this composer earned his MFA in Composition from The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) before joining the critically acclaimed band, The Mae Shi. He has also written music for several Disney animated shows, including “Star vs. The Forces of Evil”, “Pickle and Peanut” and “Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja”.  He was the composer for MTV’s “Awkward” and is currently scoring and writing the songs for Cartoon Network’s hit show “We Bare Bears”. For Nickelodeon he scored the series “Fanboy and Chumchum” and penned the theme for “Robot and Monster”.

The composer is... Brad Breeck

Our inaugural guest is well known as the composer and songwriter of Rick and Morty. He also co-composes the music for Harmonquest and the Dreamworks animated series Boss Baby: Back in Business. He has contributed music to FOX's The Simpsons and wrote the theme song for Disney's Wizards of Waverly Place. This composer got his start writing music for advertisements at a company called Emoto and landed placements with advertising clients like Nike, Toyota, and US Bank. In 2010 he won a London International Award for his work on the New Balance campaign "Feet on Head."

He has been writing music for LA’s monthly Channel 101 screenings since 2006 where he received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013. It was through the Channel 101 community that he met Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland (the co-creators of Rick and Morty) and the rest is history.

The composer is... Ryan Elder