about

James Hannigan is a BAFTA-winning composer and producer with credits spanning several entertainment industries.

In games, his credits include entries in major series such as Harry Potter, RuneScape, Dead Space, Warhammer, Evil Genius, The Lord of the Rings, FIFA, F1 and Command & Conquer, among others. An innovator in interactive music, he was among the first composers to record live ensembles and orchestras for video games.

Other game credits include entries in the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Grand Prix, EA Sports and Nintendo Art Academy game series, along with classic titles such as Red Alert 3, Theme Park World (aka Sim Theme Park), Freelancer, Space Hulk, Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat, Privateer 2 and many more. A number of his tracks from have also appeared in Terraria and the Super Smash Bros. series.

In full-cast audio drama, his work includes landmark series The Sandman - Amazon/Audible’s best-selling Original - along with the Audie Award-winning Alien series, BBC R4’s Neverwhere and Good Omens, and DC’s Kingdom Come. He has also written themes for Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series and the hugely popular Harry Potter audiobooks narrated by Stephen Fry.

Over his thirty-year career, he has received five further BAFTA nominations for his scores, along with an IFMCA Award for EA’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Among his recent awards is a Webby for The Sandman: Act II - which features “The Song of Orpheus,” sung by Regé-Jean Page.

With over 50 AAA game credits and work heard across television and bestselling audio productions, his music is more familiar than his name. From the parodic C&C track “Soviet March” - streamed hundreds of millions of times - to RuneScape’s orchestral score and the Harry Potter audiobooks - a series that has amassed more than a billion listening hours on Audible alone - his work has reached vast audiences worldwide.

Hannigan's television scoring stretches back to shows such as BBC America’s Primeval, while his music has been licensed for use in an enormous range of shows - from Top Gear and The Grand Tour to Emily in Paris, Saturday Night Live and SpongeBob SquarePants.

He has recorded with world-class orchestras and soloists for many of his projects at studios including Abbey Road, AIR and Skywalker Sound. His work has been performed at concerts around the world - from Video Games Live at London's Royal Festvial Hall to RuneFest - by ensembles including the Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Hannigan cut his teeth scoring live-action film and FMV sequences within cult-classic games such as Wing Commander spin-off Privateer II: The Darkening - starring Christopher Walken, Clive Owen and John Hurt - and, later, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, with Tim Curry, Jonathan Pryce and J. K. Simmons.

His work on the Harry Potter game tie-ins to the film series - from Order of the Phoenix through to The Deathly Hallows - is his biggest contribution to a single franchise, while his early work includes the BAFTA-nominated, pioneering interactive scores of Evil Genius and Republic: The Revolution - designed by Theme Park co-creator Demis Hassabis, later co-founder of Google DeepMind.

Hannigan began his career in the 1990s as EA Europe’s in-house composer before working from the legendary Pinewood Studios for over a decade. Other early credits include Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels, Catwoman, Reign of Fire, Infestation, Brute Force, F1 2000, Cutthroat Island, Flight of the Amazon Queen, MoHo, and Conquest: Frontier Wars - along with sound design in films such as the Golden Reel-nominated Lost in Space.

Later work includes titles such as Command & Conquer 4, Transformers Universe, Dead Space 3 and, more recently, Evil Genius 2, Call of Antia, and Steelrising.

Hannigan is also a founder of sold-out London-based conferences Game Music Connect and Screen Music Connect, and an occasional writer. He has been featured on the cover of DEVELOP magazine for its first-ever audio-related feature, which he also wrote, and his contributions have been published by Classic FM, Pixel Addict, MCV and Cambridge University Press. A fan of retro technology - with an arcade themed studio - he also blogs from time to time on subjects such as the impact of generative AI.

A longstanding BAFTA member, he is a two-time BAFTA juror and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts - and, in 2012, was featured in BAFTA’s Conversations With Composers series at the Royal Albert Hall. He has also spoken at conferences such as DEVELOP, Musicworks, The Edinburgh International Festival and The BAFTA Interactive Festival.

He has been interviewed by BBC Radio, Classic FM, Sky TV, IGN, Forbes, MusicRadar and other outlets, and is represented by COOL Music, London.

James Hannigan doesn't use social media