If you watch television, play video games or listen to audio dramas, then it’s likely you will have heard James Hannigan’s emotive music.  A BAFTA award winner and five-time BAFTA original music nominee, James is known among other things for his contributions to blockbuster franchises such as HARRY POTTER, DEAD SPACE, EVIL GENIUS, RUNESCAPE, EA SPORTS, TRANSFORMERS, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, THEME PARK, WARHAMMER and COMMAND AND CONQUER. His work in TV and Radio includes BBC America’s PRIMEVAL, the award-winning BBC adaptations of NEVERWHERE and GOOD OMENS, Audible’s lavish ALIEN series and Terry Pratchett’s UNSEEN ACADEMICALS, and his music is heard in countless productions, commercials and trailers – ranging from EARLY MAN to TOP GEAR.  He is also the founder of London Southbank based conference SCREEN MUSIC CONNECT and is the co-founder of GAME MUSIC CONNECT events.

   James Hannigan’s numerous credits include RUNESCAPE (the world’s most popular free MMO), DEAD SPACE 3, CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS, COMMAND AND CONQUER: RED ALERT 3 (the iconic theme of which, SOVIET MARCH, has collectively received well over 100 million listens across major streaming services), Nintendo’s ART ACADEMY (also featured in SUPER SMASH BROS.), TRANSFORMERS, THEME PARK WORLD/SIM THEME PARK, TERRARIA OTHERWORLD, Microsoft’s FREELANCER, entries in the WARHAMMER and SPACE HULK series; REIGN OF FIRE, GRAND PRIX, CUTTHROAT ISLAND, BRUTE FORCE, CATWOMAN, THE LORD OF THE RINGS: ARAGORN’S QUEST, HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX (VG), HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE (BAFTA Nomination, Original Music; IFMCA [International Film Music Critics Association] Award), HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, the technically dazzling early experimental fusion of film and video game in the Wing Commander universe – PRIVATEER: THE DARKENING, COMMAND AND CONQUER 4: TIBERIAN TWILIGHT, POTTERMORE’S HARRY POTTER audiobooks read by Stephen Fry (the most listened-to series in history), CONQUEST: FRONTIER WARS, entries in the F1 & FIFA series’, and much more. 

   An innovator in the field of interactive music, James created some of the games industry’s earliest fully orchestral interactive scores – for titles such as REPUBLIC: THE REVOLUTION and EVIL GENIUS, developed by Elixir Studios (led by Google DeepMind founder, Demis Hassabis). Both games employed a purpose-built interactive playback system that remixed and reordered orchestral stems and segments in realtime, going on to receive BAFTA nominations for Original Music in 2003 and 2005.  James had earlier worked on interactive music composition at Electronic Arts Europe on EA SPORTS and THEME PARK titles, and in 2004 penned DEVELOP magazine’s first ever audio-related cover feature on the subject.

   James Hannigan is a sound designer as well as a composer, and his work can be heard in productions such as the Golden Reel-nominated, LOST IN SPACE.  

   With his music sometimes airing on radio stations such as Classic FM and Scala Radio, James has recorded with orchestras ranging from The Philharmonia Orchestra and The Chamber Orchestra Of London, to the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra and Slovak Symphony Orchestra — at prestigious locations such as Air-Lyndhurst, Abbey Road Studios and Skywalker Ranch.  

An occasional interviewee or contributor for BBC Radio, Classic FM and others, James has been the subject of BAFTA’s ‘Conversations With Composers’ at the Albert Hall, and his music has been performed in concert around the world by VGL, The Eminence Symphony Orchestra, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and others.