Amanda Jones is an American composer and musician who has composed scores for films, commercials, and television series. She is a member of the indie rock band The Anti-Job and has earned the distinction of becoming the first African American woman nominated in a score category at the

Emmys The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for her work on the

Apple TV+ Apple TV is a digital media player and microconsole developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is a small network appliance hardware that plays received media data such as video and audio to a television set or external display. Since its secon ...

series ''

Home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or many humans, and sometimes various companion animals. It is a fully or semi sheltered space and can have both interior and exterior aspects to it. H ...

''.

Life

Jones was born on October 26, 1988 in

Columbia, Maryland Columbia is a census-designated place in Howard County, Maryland. It is one of the principal communities of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. It is a planned community consisting of 10 self-contained villages. Columbia began with ...

and began playing

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

at the age of three and

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

around the age of fourteen. Jones attended

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

intending to study chemistry but subsequently changed her major to music. Jones studied music composition, production, and classical guitar under Terry Champlin. She earned a BA in music from Vassar and received certificates in film scoring and orchestration from the

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cours ...

. After graduating from Vassar, Jones moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

in 2010 to record with her indie rock band, The Anti-Job, and started to consider a parallel career composing music for television and films.

Career

In 2014 through 2016, Jones worked as a music production assistant for

Hans Zimmer Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Academy Awards, Oscars and four Grammy Awards, Grammys, and has been nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards, Emmys and a Tony Awar ...

, Henry Jackson, John Powell, and Michael Levine. Her work during that time included the films ''

How to Train Your Dragon 2 ''How to Train Your Dragon 2'' is a 2014 American computer-animated action fantasy film loosely based on the book series of the same name by Cressida Cowell. Produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by 20th Century Fox, it is the sequel ...

'' and '' Kingsman: The Secret Service''. In 2016, Jones landed a job as a senior music coordinator for

Lionsgate Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...

. During that time she worked on several television series including ''Nashville'' (CMT), ''Dear White People'' (Netflix), and ''Greenleaf'' (OWN). In 2018, Jones got an opportunity to score her first feature film, ''One Angry Black Man''. Jones has since scored numerous short and feature films, including Andre Hormann’s documentary feature ''Ringside''; Smriti Mundhra and

Sami Khan Mansoor Aslam Khan Niazi, known professionally as Sami Khan, is a Pakistani actor and model who appears in films and television dramas. He started his career with film ''Salakhain'' and then moved to television. Early life He was born on July ...

’s Oscar-nominated documentary '' St. Louis Superman''; and

Sujata Day Sujata Choudhury (born June 27, 1984), credited professionally as Sujata Day, is an American actress, model and screenwriter. She is best known for her roles as CeeCee in the Issa Rae web series, '' The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl'' (201 ...

’s feature film ''

Definition Please ''Definition Please'' is a 2020 American comedy-drama film written, produced and directed by Sujata Day, who is also the star. It is Day's feature directorial debut. Cast *Sujata Day as Monica Chowdry * Ritesh Rajan as Sonny *Jake Choi as Richie ...

''. Jones television credits include OWN’s anthology series ''

Cherish the Day "Cherish the Day" is a song by English band Sade from their fourth studio album, '' Love Deluxe'' (1992). It was released as the album's fourth and final single in the United Kingdom on 19 July 1993. Critical reception Justin Chadwick from A ...

'', produced by

Ava DuVernay Ava Marie DuVernay (; born August 24, 1972) is an American filmmaker, television producer and former film publicist. She is a recipient of a Primetime Emmy Award, a NAACP Image Award, a BAFTA Film Award and a BAFTA TV Award, as well as a nominee ...

;

BET Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los A ...

’s '' Twenties'' produced by

Lena Waithe Lena Waithe (born May 17, 1984) is an American actress, producer, and screenwriter. She is the creator of the Showtime drama series ''The Chi'' (2018–present) and the BET comedy series ''Boomerang'' (2019–20) and '' Twenties'' (2020–prese ...

;

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

’s ''

A Black Lady Sketch Show ''A Black Lady Sketch Show'' is an American television sketch comedy series created by Robin Thede for HBO. The show consists of comedy sketches performed by a main cast of Black women, currently consisting of producer and creator Thede, Gabrielle ...

'' produced by

Robin Thede Robin Thede ( ) is an American comedian, actress and writer. Raised in Iowa, she has also worked as an entertainment correspondent, host, and radio personality. In 2015, she became the first African-American woman to be head writer for a late-n ...

and

Issa Rae Jo-Issa Rae Diop (born January 12, 1985), credited professionally as Issa Rae, is an American actress, writer, producer, and comedian. Rae first garnered attention for her work on the YouTube web series ''Awkward Black Girl''. Since 2011, Rae h ...

; the comedy series ''Shitty Boyfriends'' produced by

Lisa Kudrow Lisa Valerie Kudrow ( ; born July 30, 1963) is an American actress, producer, and screenwriter. She rose to fame for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the sitcom ''Friends'' (1994–2004), which has since been named one of the greatest television cha ...

; ''

Love in the Time of Corona ''Love in the Time of Corona'' is an American romantic comedy television miniseries created by Joanna Johnson that premiered on Freeform on August 22, 2020. The title is a play on the title of the novel ''Love in the Time of Cholera''. Premise ...

'' on Freeform; and the

series ''

''. Jones scored the “Maine” episode of ''Home'', for which she received an

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

nomination for Outstanding Music Composition for a Documentary Series or Special (Original Dramatic Score), becoming the first African American woman nominated in a scores category at the Emmys.

Discography

Films

Television

Awards and nominations

* Outstanding Music Composition for a Documentary Series or Special (Original Dramatic Score) -''Home'' – "Maine" – Apple TV+ – MediaWeaver/Four M Studios/Altimeter Films, Composer. *

NAACP Image Award The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. Similar to ...

for Outstanding Gospel/Christian Album for ''Greenleaf'' on OWN. * S&G Rising Award for musical composition work in film and television (2019).

Initiatives

Co-founder of Composers Diversity Collective whose mission is to increase the visibility of composers of diverse backgrounds and facilitates mentoring.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Amanda 1988 births Living people American composers Vassar College alumni African-American film score composers