JAMES HANNIGAN – Website of the BAFTA Winning Composer

“… James Hannigan’s music makes The Sandman totally immersive.” – THE SUNDAY TIMES

“The most powerful weapon is the music.” – L.A. TIMES on DEAD SPACE 3

“the best music in the series..” – MOVIE MUSIC UK, HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX (VG)

“An astonishing composer…” – NEIL GAIMAN

“…a wonderful cinematic score” – AUDIOFILE MAGAZINE

“[Evil Genius] expertly captures the ‘60s spy-movie aesthetic” – GAME INFORMER

” a superb score by composer James Hannigan — nothing more, nothing less.” – MULTIVERSITY COMICS

“Seeing a horde of monsters fast approaching, with pointy limbs flailing, as .. horns and violins rise to cacophony, is guaranteed to get the heart pumping.” – TIME

“A score which combines musicality with wit … complementing the sound perfectly.” – BAFTA

“10/10. The music in Republic is amazing. It is possibly the greatest and most appropriate music in any game ever. The sweeping eastern classical music fits the game so well it is untrue.” – GAME FAQS

“Returning composer James Hannigan [has] brought this new game to life without losing step with the original. The music that Hannigan brings to life shows that he has not missed a beat. My only wish was that there were more..” – GAMING TREND

“The formidable music, sometimes terrifying, sometimes tender, is by the composer James Hannigan, noted for his contributions to screen and video games” – THE TIMES

“…some of the most viscerally satisfying bombast ever produced. Starting with “The Inquisitorial Squad”, Hannigan never makes the mistake of fashioning directionless sound and fury.” – GGM

“The soundtrack is particularly fantastic” – IGN

“…a cohesive musical story from start to finish.” – FORBES

“In games of this genre, it’s common for me to mute the music and listen to something other than the OST. In Evil Genius 2, that most certainly wasn’t the case… the music truly excels” – RAPID REVIEWS

“The music.. is amazing. James Hannigan returns and he expands the original soundtrack with gusto… Brilliant Music.” – GAMEWATCHER

James Hannigan is a BAFTA award-winning composer and producer with credits ranging from multi-million-selling video games and television to cutting-edge audio drama. His work includes, among others, entries in the Harry Potter, Dead Space, Evil Genius, RuneScape, Warhammer, The Lord of the Rings, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Theme Park, Art Academy, FIFA, and Command and Conquer video game series; full-cast audio adaptations including the NY Times #1 bestselling The Sandman, Alien series, and the newly recorded Discworld. His themes, such as the parodic "Soviet March," have been streamed hundreds of millions of times across digital platforms, and among his other awards are a Webby People's Choice Award for The Sandman Act II (with James McAvoy , Michael Sheen, and Regé-Jean Page) and an IFMCA (International Film Music Critics Association) Award for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince VG (also BAFTA award-nominated in 2010). | LISTEN

Represented by the COOL Music agency in London, Hannigan has recorded with world class orchestras including The Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and The Skywalker Symphony Orchestra, at iconic studios such as Abbey Road, Air-Lyndhurst, and Skywalker Ranch. An occasional panelist at Comic-Con, interviewed by BBC Radio, Sky TV, IGN, Forbes, Music Radar and others, he has also written articles for Classic FM and other media outlets on subjects ranging from the function of screen music and interactive audio to the implications of AI in Music. He has appeared on the cover of DEVELOP magazine, spoken at conferences and institutions such as The School of Sound, EIGF, Musicworks, Ludomusicology, DEVELOP, and The Royal College of Music, and has been featured in BAFTA’s "Conversations with Composers" series at the Albert Hall. | VIDEO

Past projects also include entries in the EA Sports, Grand Prix, Space Hulk and F1 game series; Primeval (BBC America/ITV), Nintendo's Art Academy (also heard in the Super Smash Bros. series), Evil Genius 2 (2022), Steelrising (2022), Transformers Universe, Red Alert 3, Dead Space 3, Reign of Fire, Catwoman, Freelancer, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Terraria: Otherworld, Command and Conquer 4, Conquest, Brute Force, The Darkening (with Christopher Walken, Clive Owen and John Hurt), Theme Park World (BAFTA Award, 2000), FA Premier League (BAFTA Nomination, 2000), Evil Genius (BAFTA Nomination, Original Music, 2004), Republic: The Revolution (BAFTA Nomination, Original Music, 2003), Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat, RuneScape: The Orchestral Collection, the popular Harry Potter audiobooks read by Stephen Fry, and BBC R4's adaptations of Good Omens and Neverwhere.

Deeply fascinated by the intersection of music and technology, Hannigan was an early innovator in the field of interactive music. Working internally with Electronic Arts and then later from his offices at Pinewood Studios in London, he devised pioneering interactive music systems for numerous games - including Republic: The Revolution, designed by Google DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis. His early work also includes sound design for films such as the Golden Reel-Nominated, Lost in Space.

A longstanding BAFTA member and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Hannigan has co-founded and organised industry conferences including Screen Music Connect and Game Music Connect (held at London's Southbank Centre, in partnership with BAFTA, Classic FM, Sony PlayStation, Music Week, and The Ivors Academy), and has participated in concerts ranging from RuneFest with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra to VGL with The Philharmonia at Royal Festival Hall.

Music from Hannigan’s back catalogue can be heard in numerous TV productions, documentaries, commercials and trailers, on numerous channels and platforms including Disney+, Discovery, The BBC and Netflix - ranging, among many others, from episodes of Top Gear, The Grand Tour and SpongeBob SquarePants, to Floor is Lava, Disney shorts, Impractical Jokers, Saturday Night Live, The World According to Jeff Goldblum, Dance Moms, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tour of Houses and Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts. His music has also accompanied numerous experiences, installations and immersive experiences.

biography