James Hannigan

Weaving an eclectic mix of influences including electronica, jazz, ambient and industrial music into his rich, classical scores, English composer and sound designer James Hannigan (born on July 23rd, 1971) has soundtracked a vast array of video games, TV shows and podcasts over the course of a career spanning multiple decades. Well-versed in a multitude of analog instruments and effects including the Lexicon PCM 80 and the Sherman Filterbank as well as digital plugins, he quickly made a name for himself in the mid-1990s, rising to prominence in the gaming world as an in-house composer at Electronic Arts Europe. After scooping up a BAFTA Award in 2000 for his Sim Theme Park soundtrack, he went on to land increasingly high-profile opportunities, scoring the wildly popular fantasy game RuneScape and several Harry Potter games in the early 2000s while landing four further BAFTA nominations. In 2008, Hannigan enjoyed a major breakthrough with “Soviet March”, the theme from strategy game Command & Conquer: Red Alert, which has since racked up tens of millions of streams. After working on various live-action programmes including the dinosaur sci-fi series Primeval, he has since teamed up with Nintendo to soundtrack various games including Art Academy and Super Smash Bros. Wii U, and has been solely responsible for scoring the podcast adaptation of DC Comics’ The Sandman.