Harry Gregson-Williams

 

Harry Gregson-Williams is one of Hollywood’s most sought-after and prolific composers whose long list of film and television credits underscore the diverse range of his talents. He most recently wrote the music for The Last Duel and House of Gucci both directed by Ridley Scott. In addition, he wrote the music for Disney’s live action feature film Mulan which was directed by Niki Caro with whom he worked previously on The Zookeeper’s Wife. Gregson-Williams also co-wrote the original song Loyal Brave True for Mulan performed by Christina Aguilera. He and his brother composer Rupert Gregson-Williams are writing the original score for the drama series The Gilded Age which debuted on HBO on January 24, 2022, in the US and will be available to stream on HBO Max. The Gilded Age launched on Sky Atlantic and streaming service NOW in the UK on January 25, 2022. They previously worked together on the miniseries Catch-22.

He was the composer on all four installments of the animated blockbuster Shrek franchise, garnering a BAFTA Award nomination for the score for the Oscar-winning Shrek. He received Golden Globe and Grammy Award nominations for his score for Andrew Adamson’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. He has collaborated multiple times with a number of directors, including Ben Affleck on Live by Night, The Town and Gone Baby Gone; Joel Schumacher on Twelve, The Number 23, Veronica Guerin and Phone Booth; Tony Scott on Unstoppable, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, Déjà Vu, Domino, Man on Fire, Spy Game and Enemy of the State; Ridley Scott on The Martian, Prometheus, Exodus: Gods and Kings, Kingdom of Heaven, The Last Duel and House of Gucci; Bille August on Return to Sender and Smilla’s Sense of Snow; Andrew Adamson on the Shrek series, the first two Narnia movies and Mr. Pip; and Antoine Fuqua on The Replacement Killers, The Equalizer, The Equalizer 2 and Infinite. Some of his other recent film projects include the upcoming The Ambush directed by Pierre Morel, Life in a Day 2020 directed Kevin Macdonald, The Meg directed by Jon Turteltaub, Aardman’s Early Man directed by Nick Park for which he received an Annie Award nomination and Disneynature’s Penguins. His television credits include Whiskey Cavalier, the miniseries Catch-22 along with his brother Rupert Gregson-Williams and creating the main title theme and scoring two episodes of the anthology series Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams for which he received an Emmy nomination for the episode titled The Commuter.

Gregson-Williams has scored three of the five games in the highly successful Metal Gear Solid franchise for Konami and scored Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare for Activision, which became the top-selling video game of 2014 and earned him various music gaming awards. Throughout his career, Gregson-Williams has collaborated with a diverse array of recording artists such as Regina Spektor, Imogen Heap, Tricky, Peter Murphy, Flea, Hybrid, Paul Oakenfold, Sasha, Trevor Horn, Trevor Rabin, Lebo M., Perry Farrell and Tony Visconti.

Born in England to a musical family, Gregson-Williams earned a music scholarship to St. John’s College, Cambridge, at the age of 7 and later gained a coveted spot at London’s Guildhall School of Music & Drama, from which he recently received an honorary fellowship. He started his film career as assistant to composer Richard Harvey and later as orchestrator and arranger for Stanley Myers, and then went on to compose his first scores for director Nicolas Roeg. His subsequent collaboration and friendship with composer Hans Zimmer led to Gregson-Williams providing music for such films as The Rock, Armageddon and The Prince of Egypt and helped launch his career in Hollywood.

In 2018, Gregson-Williams received the BMI Icon Award, in recognition of his unique and indelible influence on generations of music makers, and the Society of Composers & Lyricists’ prestigious Ambassador Award. He has also been a regular mentor at the Sundance Composers Lab, working directly with talented emerging composers from all over the world.