Biography
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Born
17 October 1980 (age 43)
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Born In
New York, New York, United States
Nicholas Britell (born October 17, 1980) is an American composer, pianist, and film producer based in New York City. He has scored both of Barry Jenkins' studio films, Moonlight (2016) and If Beale Street Could Talk (2018), both of which received nominations for Best Original Score at the Academy Awards. He has also worked with Adam McKay, scoring his two most recent films, The Big Short (2015) and Vice (2018).
The HBO original series Succession (2018–present) marked Britell's entry into television, scoring every episode of the first and second season and earning him the Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music and the Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Original Score - TV Show/Limited Series. His score for the second season of Succession was nominated in 2020 for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score). At the World Soundtrack Awards, Britell was awarded Film Composer of the Year in 2019 for his scores for Vice and If Beale Street Could Talk and Television Composer of the Year in 2020 for Succession.
Britell was raised in a Jewish family, in New York City. He graduated from the college preparatory school, Hopkins School, in 1999. Britell is a graduate of the Juilliard School's Pre-College Division and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard University in 2003. At school, he was a member of the instrumental hip-hop group, The Witness Protection Program, where he played keyboards and synthesizers. Britell is part of an emerging generation of composers and artists who draw from an eclectic range of influences. His work is inspired by Rachmaninoff, Gershwin, Philip Glass, and Zbigniew Preisner as well as by producers Quincy Jones and Dr. Dre.
He is married to cellist Caitlin Sullivan.
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