James Hannigan is a BAFTA Award–winning composer, known for richly melodic and emotionally charged music across multi-million-selling video games, television and audio drama. An International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) and Webby People’s Voice Award winner – with a further five BAFTA nominations spanning 25 years – his work includes entries in the Harry Potter, Dead Space, Warhammer, RuneScape, Evil Genius, FIFA, F1, Transformers and Command & Conquer game series, as well as several Wing Commander spin-offs and titles in the Theme Park, Art Academy, The Lord of the Rings and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs franchises – among many others. | LISTEN

Alongside earlier television work, including music for ITV’s Primeval, his full-cast audio drama and audiobook credits include Harry Potter, Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, Amazon/Audible’s full cast The Sandman (Acts I–III, with Acts I and II the best-selling Audible Originals in the company’s history), the Alien series, Kingdom Come (DC), and themes for BBC R4 adaptations of Neverwhere, Stardust and Good Omens.

Hannigan’s music – such as the parodic cult favourite Red Alert 3 Theme: Soviet March – has been streamed hundreds of millions of times. He has recorded with several renowned orchestras – notably the Philharmonia, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra, at studios such as Abbey Road, AIR and Skywalker Sound.

A conference founder and an occasional writer of words as well as music, he has penned articles for Classic FM, Develop, Pixel Addict and other outlets. (continues below)

(Montage conducted by Allan Wilson / James Hannigan / Johannes Vogel)

“The most powerful weapon is the music.”

L.A. TIMES

“… James Hannigan’s music makes The Sandman totally immersive.”

THE SUNDAY TIMES

“the best music in the series..”

MOVIE MUSIC UK – HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX (VG)

“…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

“horns and violins rise to cacophony, 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… possibly the most appropriate music ever….”

GAME FAQS

“James Hannigan has not missed a beat.”

GAMING TREND

“formidable music, sometimes terrifying, sometimes tender…”

THE TIMES

“…some of the most viscerally satisfying bombast ever produced”

GGM

“The soundtrack is particularly fantastic”

IGN

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

FORBES

“The music truly excels”

RAPID REVIEWS

“The music is amazing. James Hannigan returns, expands the original … Brilliant Music.”

GAMEWATCHER

Among his credits are The Sandman Acts I–III, including “The Song of Orpheus”, sung by Regé-Jean Page; Steelrising, Primeval (ITV/BBC America), Reign of Fire, Catwoman, Terraria: Otherworld, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (VG), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (VG; IFMCA Award, BAFTA nomination, 2010), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 & 2 (VGs); Dead Space 3, Command & Conquer 4, Call of Antia, The BAFTA-nominated Evil Genius, Evil Genius 2 and Transformers Universe. A small number of his tracks have also featured in Terraria and Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. series.

Music licensed from his back catalogue continues to be widely heard in television series, including - among many others - Top Gear, The Grand Tour, Emily in Paris, Saturday Night Live, Olaf Presents, SpongeBob SquarePants, The World According to Jeff Goldblum, Dance Moms, Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tour of Houses and Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts.

Beginning his career in the mid-1990s, first as Electronic Arts Europe’s in-house composer and later as a freelance composer based at Pinewood Studios in West London, his early work on titles such Theme Park World (BAFTA Award, 2000) and the BAFTA-nominated Republic: The Revolution (2004) - designed by Demis Hassabis, now CEO of DeepMind - featured adaptive music systems that helped shape approaches to interactivity later standard in narrative game scoring. From Pinewood, he also undertook sound design for film, including the Golden Reel–nominated Lost in Space (New Line Cinema). His earliest credits include Privateer 2: The Darkening (with Christopher Walken, Clive Owen and John Hurt), Chris Roberts' Freelancer, Conquest, Brute Force, Sim Theme Park, Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat, Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels, Theme Park Inc. (Theme Coaster), Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix 4 (to be remastered in 2026), Infestation, various entries on the EA Sports label, Beasts and Bumpkins, Flight of the Amazon Queen, Cutthroat Island and more.

A fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a longstanding BAFTA member, James has been interviewed by BBC Radio, Classic FM, Sky TV, IGN, Forbes and MusicRadar, and has talked at The Royal College of Music, The School of Sound, EIGF, Musicworks, Ludomusicology and the DEVELOP Conference. In 2012, he was a subject of BAFTA’s Conversations with Composers series held at the Royal Albert Hall.

Between 2013 and 2020, Hannigan co-founded and organised the sold-out Southbank-based conference series Game Music Connect and Screen Music Connect - held in partnership with Playstation, BAFTA, the Ivors Academy, PRS For Music, Classic FM, Music Week, Electronic Arts and others.

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James Hannigan doesn't use social media