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James Hannigan is a BAFTA-winning composer and producer, known for his memorable themes and evocative, story-driven scores. He is also a conference founder and an occasional essayist.
In games, his work includes entries in major series such as Harry Potter, RuneScape, Dead Space, Warhammer, Evil Genius, The Lord of the Rings, Theme Park, EA Sports and Command & Conquer, among others. | LISTEN
In full-cast audio drama, among his credits are landmark series The Sandman – Amazon/Audible’s best-selling Original – the Audie award-winning Alien series, Neverwhere, Good Omens and DC’s Kingdom Come – along with audiobooks including the Harry Potter and Discworld series.
A five-time BAFTA nominee, an IFMCA Award winner for EA’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and, more recently, a Webby Award recipient for The Sandman: Act II – featuring “The Song of Orpheus” sung by Regé-Jean Page – he has recorded with world-class orchestras at studios such as Abbey Road, AIR and Skywalker Sound.
From Red Alert 3’s viral “Soviet March” to RuneScape: The Orchestral Collection, together with over fifty AAA game scores and countless placements across television, his music has accumulated billions of streams and listening hours worldwide.
His television credits stretch back to 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.
Recent scores include The Sandman: Act III, DC’s Kingdom Come, Steelrising, Evil Genius 2, Call of Antia and unannounced projects for Amazon.
Hannigan’s work has also included entries in the FIFA, F1, Art Academy, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Grand Prix game series, along with offshoots of the Wing Commander universe such as Freelancer, and cult-classic live-action titles Privateer II: The Darkening – featuring Christopher Walken, Clive Owen and John Hurt – and Red Alert 3, with Tim Curry, Jonathan Pryce and J. K. Simmons.
More credits
Beginning his career as EA Europe’s in-house composer, before embarking on a freelance career from the legendary Pinewood Studios in London, his earliest credits include Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels, Catwoman, Reign of Fire, Infestation, Brute Force, F1 2000, Theme Park World (BAFTA Award, 2000), Cutthroat Island, Flight of the Amazon Queen, Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat, MoHo, and Conquest: Frontier Wars. Followed by titles such as Command & Conquer 4, Transformers Universe, Dead Space 3 and the orchestral score of the record-breaking MMORPG RuneScape, recorded at Abbey Road.
His most extensive musical contribution to a single franchise is undoubtedly his work on the Harry Potter film tie-ins, from Order of the Phoenix through to The Deathly Hallows – while his other work has included the BAFTA-nominated, pioneering interactive scores of Evil Genius and Republic: The Revolution – designed by Theme Park co-creator Demis Hassabis, later CEO of Google DeepMind.
A number of Hannigan’s tracks have also appeared in the Super Smash Bros. and Terraria franchises, while his earliest credits include sound design for films such as the Golden Reel-nominated Lost in Space.
Hannigan is also a conference founder and writer, with work published by Classic FM, Pixel Addict, DEVELOP Magazine and Cambridge University Press – and blogs occasionally on subjects such as retro technology and the impact of generative AI on the arts. A longstanding BAFTA member, two-time BAFTA juror, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, he has been interviewed by BBC Radio, Classic FM, Sky TV, IGN, Forbes and MusicRadar – and, in 2012, was made a subject of BAFTA’s Conversations With Composers series held at the Royal Albert Hall. His work has been performed in concerts around the world, including in the UK with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. He is represented by COOL Music, London.
“Spaaaaaaaace!.”
– TIM CURRY (COMMAND & CONQUER: RED ALERT 3)