Known for his wide-ranging, evocative and memorable scores, BAFTA and IFMCA award winning composer and music producer James Hannigan has created music for virtually all forms of media. His credits include entries in the Harry Potter, Dead Space, Transformers, The Lord of the Rings, Warhammer, Evil Genius, Theme Park, RuneScape and Command and Conquer video game series’; TV such as ITV’s Primeval; Radio and full cast audio drama including Audible’s Alien series, adaptations of Neverwhere and Good Omens – and, recently, Neil Gaiman’s record-breaking The Sandman (with a cast including James McAvoy, Kat Dennings, Regé-Jean Page and Michael Sheen). James’s tracks – such as his much-memed Soviet March from the Command and Conquer franchise – have been streamed many millions of times on digital music platforms.
In the early years of his career, after a short period in Television, James based himself at Pinewood Studios in West London, quickly establishing himself as a pioneering force in interactive music – scoring titles such as Theme Park World/Sim Theme Park (BAFTA Award, 2000), the BAFTA Award nominated Evil Genius and the groundbreaking Republic: The Revolution (designed by Google DeepMind co-founder, Demis Hassabis), Conquest, Nintendo‘s Art Academy, entries in the Wing Commander universe including The Darkening and Freelancer, EA Sports titles in the FIFA and F1 series, Red Alert 3, film tie-ins such as Catwoman, Cutthroat Island, Reign of Fire, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2 (EA/WBIE) – and numerous others of the era.
James’s music appears in TV productions ranging recently from Top Gear and The Grand Tour to Floor is Lava and The World According to Jeff Goldblum; games such as the Super Smash Bros series – and the most listened-to audiobooks in history: the Harry Potter series read by Stephen Fry. His sound design can been heard in films such as the Golden Reel nominated Lost In Space.
A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, James is a founder of sold-out London Southbank based conferences, Screen Music Connect and Game Music Connect, introduced to inspire and educate professional and aspiring composers alike. London Southbank-based events held since 2013 have been partnered with BAFTA, Classic FM, Sony PlayStation, Music Week, The Ivors Academy and others.
With his music airing on stations such as Classic FM and Scala Radio, James has worked with several world class orchestras including The Philharmonia, The Chamber Orchestra of London, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The Skywalker Symphony Orchestra and Slovak Symphony Orchestra – recording at locations such as Air Studios, Abbey Road and Skywalker Ranch. Among his awards are an IFMCA (International Film Music Critics Association) Award for the score of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (EA/WBIE, 2010) and in 2012 he was made a subject of BAFTA’s Conversations with Composers series held at the Royal Albert Hall. A regular radio interviewee, Comic Con and conference panelist, James has written articles for Classic FM and other outlets and once penned DEVELOP Magazine’s first ever audio-related cover feature.
