Paul Leonard-Morgan

Paul Leonard-Morgan is a BAFTA award-winning, and Emmy and Ivor Novello nominated composer and producer. His unique cinematic style (fusing orchestra with electronica) has put him in high demand, both as a soundtrack composer and producer for bands. Paul’s recent scores include Showtime’s Fellow Travelers, award-winning director Errol Morris’ The Pigeon Tunnel, scored with Philip Glass for Apple TV+, Bodkin and Living with Leopards for Netflix and the feature film Boston Strangler starring Keira Knightley and Carrie Coon.

Further credits include Amazon’s Tales From the Loop with Philip Glass, the video game Cyberpunk 2077 (scored with P.T Adamczyk and Marcin Przybylowicz), BBC series The Nest, three series of Amazon’s The Grand Tour, Errol Morris’ Wormwood and series three of Designated Survivor starring Kiefer Sutherland.

Studying at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, he quickly developed a reputation as a producer and arranger on the thriving Glasgow music scene, working with bands such as Belle and Sebastian, Snow Patrol, Mogwai and Texas. In addition, he became a long-term collaborator of Scottish songstress Isobel Campbell, working extensively on each of her albums, including the Mercury nominated “Ballad Of The Broken Seas” with Mark Lanegan. This led to Paul working with famed producer Phil Ramone on Sharleen Spiteri’s Gold Disc “Melody”. After working with Mogwai on numerous previous projects (including an art installation with Turner prize- winning artist Douglas Gordon), Paul collaborated with them again on their 7^th studio album “Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will”. He also worked with producer Mark “Spike” Stent on No Doubt’s highly acclaimed comeback album “Push and Shove”.

Paul’s first film score, Pineapple, won him a BAFTA award, and his first television drama in the UK, Fallen, earned him both BAFTA and Ivor Novello nominations. This led to him scoring 5 series’ (50 episodes) of the hit BBC/Kudos drama Spooks (MI5 in the US).

His groundbreaking score for Relativity’s US and UK box office No. 1 Limitless, a paranoia-fuelled action thriller starring Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro, directed by Neil Burger (The Illusionist), was nominated for the prestigious World Soundtrack Discovery Award in Ghent. Paul went on to score the Limitless TV series for CBS with director Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer, The Amazing Spider Man, The Office).

Paul composed the soundtrack to DNA/Lionsgate’s UK box office No. 1 DREDD starring Karl Urban (Star Trek, The Bourne Supremacy, Lord Of The Rings), Olivia Thirlby (Juno) and Lena Headey (Game Of Thrones), with screenplay written by Alex Garland (The Beach, 28 Days Later). Variety magazine noted “the throbbing sounds of Paul Leonard-Morgan’s bass heavy score”. Other scores include thriller The Numbers Station (starring John Cusack and Malin Akerman), Legendary (starring Dolf Lundgren), and the internet sensation inspired Grumpy Cat’s Worst Ever Christmas.

On the animation front, Paul worked with Universal and Illumination to score 3 Minions films which were released alongside the record- breaking film Despicable Me 2, which went on to gross over $1 billion. This led to him scoring the Fox/Evergreen animation Walking With Dinosaurs 3D voiced by John Leguizamo (Ice Age) and Justin Long (He’s Just Not That Into You).

Paul scored his first ever video game soundtrack in 2014, EA Games’ flagship $180 million release Battlefield: Hardline, and was commission by the National Theatre to score new adaptations of James I and II. The first of these premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival to 1500 people each night, before taking residence at The Olivier Theatre in London.

Other work has seen Paul honoured by the US Olympic Committee when chosen to compose the official US Olympic Team Anthem (previously scored by legendary film composer John Williams). The track was used extensively across the US to accompany coverage of the Olympic Games, as well as by many of the USOC partners and sponsors. It also appeared on NBC’s US Olympic Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony.

Paul worked with Disney to compose the soundtrack for their ride, Test Track, at Disneyworld, Florida. He was also commissioned to write a symphonic suite based on his score to the BAFTA winning A History of Scotland, which was subsequently toured around the UK following its premiere in the Grand Hall of the 900 year-old Stirling Castle.