About
James Hannigan is a BAFTA Award-winning composer and music producer with credits spanning AAA video games, television and audio drama. An International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) and Webby People’s Voice Award winner, with five additional BAFTA nominations, his work in games includes entries in franchises such as Harry Potter, Dead Space, RuneScape, Warhammer, Evil Genius, FIFA, F1, Transformers, Theme Park, The Lord of the Rings, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Art Academy and Command & Conquer.
His work in full-cast audio drama and audiobooks features major productions such as The Sandman (Amazon/Audible’s best-selling Original), DC’s Kingdom Come, and the Discworld, Harry Potter and Audie award-winning Alien series. | LISTEN
Hannigan’s music – including the parodic Red Alert 3 Theme: Soviet March – has been streamed hundreds of millions of times. His work has been performed in concerts around the world – from RuneFest to Video Games Live – and he has recorded with ensembles including the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road, AIR and Skywalker Sound. His scores have also featured solo performances from Regé-Jean Page (for The Sandman: The Song of Orpheus), and musicians such as Zsolt-Tihamér Visontay, Miranda Keys, Pete Lockett and Miriam Stockley. | NEWS
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Hannigan’s additional credits include BBC Radio 4 adaptations of Neverwhere, Stardust and Good Omens, and a number of his tracks have featured in games such as Terraria and Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. His television work includes music for Primeval (BBC America), while music from his back catalogue can be widely heard across numerous shows, ranging from Top Gear and The Grand Tour to Emily in Paris, Saturday Night Live and Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking.
An early innovator in interactive music, his credits include Theme Park World (BAFTA Award, 2000), Evil Genius (BAFTA nomination, 2005) and Republic: The Revolution (BAFTA nomination, 2004) – the latter designed by Demis Hassabis. As a sound designer, his film credits include the Golden Reel-nominated Lost in Space, and his early game credits span titles such as Privateer 2: The Darkening (with John Hurt and Christopher Walken), Freelancer, F1 2000, Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat, Space Hulk, Flight of the Amazon Queen and Grand Prix 4. Recent projects include Steelrising, Call of Antia, Evil Genius 2, and a new theme for Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.
A conference founder and occasional writer, he has appeared on the cover of DEVELOP magazine, written for Classic FM and Pixel Addict, and contributed forewords to academic works such as Tim Summers’ Understanding Video Game Music (Cambridge University Press, 2016). He is co-founder of Screen Art Connect events, formerly held at London’s Southbank Centre in partnership with PlayStation, BAFTA, the Ivors Academy, PRS for Music, Classic FM, Music Week and Electronic Arts, and blogs on topics ranging from vintage arcade machines to the implications of AI music.
A fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a longstanding BAFTA member, Hannigan has been featured in BAFTA’s Conversations with Composers series held at the Royal Albert Hall, interviewed by BBC Radio, Classic FM, Sky TV, IGN, Forbes and MusicRadar, and has spoken at institutions and events including the Royal College of Music, the School of Sound, EIGF, Musicworks, Ludomusicology and the DEVELOP Conference.
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