Paul Leonard-Morgan
Paul Leonard-Morgan (born 1974) is a Scottish composer particularly known for his work in scoring for television and film. He won a Scottish BAFTA for the film Reflections upon the Origin of the Pineapple (2000), which was his first film score.[1][2]
Paul Leonard-Morgan
1974 (age 49–50)
Scotland
Film score, classical
Composer
Piano
1997–present
Early life[edit]
Leonard-Morgan's mother was a music teacher. As a child, he learned to play the piano, violin, and recorder.[3] He studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, graduating in 1995 with a BA in musical studies.[4]
Career[edit]
Leonard-Morgan's first album, Filmtales, was released in 2007. Between 2006 and 2011, he wrote scores for the BBC spy drama Spooks.[5] In 2007, he worked on the documentary J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life, providing the backing music that went with the film that showed the author working on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.[6]
In 2008, he was chosen by the U.S. Olympic Committee to compose a new U.S. Olympic Team anthem.[7] In the same year, he also wrote the music for Neil Oliver's BBC television series A History of Scotland.[8] His score was performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in 2009.[9]
In 2011, Leonard-Morgan composed the soundtrack for the sci-fi thriller Limitless,[10][11] and he also wrote music for the television series based on the film.
In 2012, he scored the sci-fi film Dredd,[12] for which he was shortlisted at the 2013 World Soundtrack Public Choice Award.[13] Also in 2012, Leonard-Morgan composed the queue music for Test Track at Epcot.[14]
Leonard-Morgan first became involved with video game soundtracks by composing material for Battlefield Hardline, which was released in March 2015.[15][16] In May 2016, a trailer for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III was released, which included his composition;[17] the game came out in 2017, with a score by Leonard-Morgan.[18]
Leonard-Morgan cowrote the score for the video game Cyberpunk 2077. In an interview with Headliner Magazine on creating the score and soundtrack for the game, he said, "Writing dark music is relatively easy. Writing dark music like nobody else has ever written before is a little bit harder".[19]