James Newton Howard

To date, Howard has received eight Oscar® nominations, including six for Best Original Score for his work on Defiance, Michael Clayton, The Village, The Fugitive, The Prince of Tides and My Best Friend’s Wedding.  He was also nominated for Best Original Song for the films Junior and One Fine Day.

Howard, along with Hans Zimmer, won the 2009 Grammy Award for the score for The Dark Knight.  He has also received Grammy Award nominations for music from Blood Diamond, Dinosaur, Signs and the song »For the First Time«, performed by Kenny Loggins from One Fine Day.  

Howard has also been nominated four times for Golden Globe Awards for his massive orchestral score for Peter Jackson’s blockbuster remake of King Kong, for the songs from Junior and One Fine Day and for his provocative symphonic score for Defiance.

In addition, he won an Emmy Award for the theme to the Andre Braugher series Gideon’s Crossing, and received two additional Emmy nominations for the themes to the long-running Warner Bros. series Emergency Room and the Ving Rhames Men series.  

Howard, who has been honored with ASCAP’s prestigious Henry Mancini Award for Lifetime Achievement, now has more than 120 films to his credit.  Among them are all of M. Night Shyamalan’s films including The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, The Village, Lady in the Water and The Last Airbender.  His other wide-ranging credits include all three installments of The Hunger Games, Maleficent, Nightcrawler, Snow White and the Huntsman, The Bourne Legacy, Salt, Water For Elephants, Gnomeo & Juliet, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Collateral, Snow Falling on Cedars, Outbreak, Hidalgo, Peter Pan, Wyatt Earp, Freedomland, Treasure Planet, Falling Down, Primal Fear, Glengarry Glen Ross, Waterworld, The Devil’s Advocate, Dave and Pretty Woman among many others. 

In 2008 he received the World Soundtrack Award for Film Composer of the Year for his work on the films Charlie Wilson’s War, Michael Clayton and I Am Legend and the Soundtrack of the Year Award from the Classical BRIT Awards for Blood Diamond (2008) and for The Dark Knight, one year after (2009). 

Though his training was classical, he maintained an interest in rock and pop music and it was his early work in the pop arena that allowed him to hone his talents as a musician, arranger, songwriter and producer.  He racked up a string of collaborations in the studio and on the road with some of pop’s biggest names, including Sir Elton John, Stills & Nash, Barbra Streisand, Earth, Wind and Fire, Bob Seger, Rod Stewart, Toto, Glenn Frey, Diana Ross, Carly Simon, Olivia Newton-John, Randy Newman, Rickie Lee Jones, Cher and Chaka Khan. 

When he was offered to compose the score for Head Office, in 1985, he knew he had found his calling.
  
His upcoming projects include Francis Lawrence’s final installment of The Hunger Games – Mockingjay, Part 2 and Peter Landesman’s Concussion.