This is a list of winners and nominees of the

Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...

for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series. Starting in 2019, the category recognizes scripted programs. Unscripted programs compete for Music Composition for a Documentary Series or Special.

Winners and nominations

1960s

Note: Award titled Outstanding Individual Achievements in Music Composition (1966–69)

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

Total awards by network

* CBS – 12 * ABC – 7 * NBC – 6 * Fox – 3 * PBS – 3 * Syndicated – 3 * Discovery Channel – 2 * Disney+ – 2 * HBO – 2 * Netflix – 3 * UPN – 2 * The WB – 2 * Apple TV+ – 1 * Showtime – 1 * USA – 1

Programs with multiple awards

;3 awards * ''24'' ;2 awards * ''Beauty and the Beast'' * ''Dallas'' (consecutive) * ''Downton Abbey'' (consecutive) * ''Game of Thrones'' (consecutive) * ''Hawaii Five-O'' * ''House of Cards'' * ''Little House on the Prairie'' * ''The Mandalorian'' (consecutive) * ''The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles'' (consecutive)

Programs with multiple nominations

;12 nominations * ''The Simpsons'' (Fox) ;8 nominations * ''24'' (Fox) ;6 nominations * ''Dallas'' (CBS) ;5 nominations * ''Hawaii Five-O'' (CBS) * ''House of Cards'' (Netflix) * ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' (Syndicated) * ''Star Trek: Voyager'' (UPN) * ''The X-Files'' (Fox) * ''Xena: Warrior Princess'' (Syndicated) ;4 nominations * ''Little House on the Prairie'' (NBC) * ''Lou Grant'' (ABC) * ''Moonlighting'' (CBS) ;3 nominations * ''Beauty and the Beast'' (CBS) * ''Columbo'' (NBC) * ''The Crown'' (Netflix) * ''Downton Abbey'' (PBS) * ''Family Guy'' (Fox) * ''Game of Thrones'' (HBO) * ''I Spy'' (NBC) * ''Lost'' (ABC) * ''Love, American Style'' (ABC) * ''Matlock'' (NBC) * ''Mission: Impossible'' (CBS) * ''Murder, She Wrote'' (CBS) * ''Run for Your Life'' (NBC) * ''SeaQuest DSV'' (NBC) * ''The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles'' (ABC) ;2 nominations * ''Bonanza'' (NBC) * ''The Borgias'' (Showtime) * ''Bronk'' (CBS) * ''CBS Playhouse'' (CBS) * ''Chef's Table'' (Netflix) * ''The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd'' (NBC) * ''Dynasty'' (ABC) * ''Enterprise'' (UPN) * ''Ghost Whisperer'' (CBS) * ''Gunsmoke'' (CBS) * ''The Handmaid's Tale'' (Hulu) * ''House'' (Fox) * ''JAG'' (CBS) * ''Knots Landing'' (CBS) * ''The Mandalorian'' (Disney+) * ''Miami Vice'' (NBC) * ''Penny Dreadful'' (Showtime) * ''Rome'' (HBO) * ''Roots'' (ABC) * ''St. Elsewhere'' (NBC) * ''Succession'' (HBO) * ''30 Rock'' (NBC) * ''This Is Us'' (NBC)

Composers with multiple awards

;3 awards *

Bruce Broughton Bruce Harold Broughton (born March 8, 1945) is an American orchestral composer of television, film, and video game scores and concert works. He has composed several highly acclaimed soundtracks over his extensive career and has contributed man ...

Sean Callery Sean Callery (born 1964) is an American musician and composer, best known for composing the music for the action/drama '' 24'' and the Marvel adaptation '' Jessica Jones''. Other projects include the 2004 James Bond video game, '' James Bond 007 ...

* David Rose ;2 awards *

Jeff Beal Jeff Beal (born June 20, 1963) is an American composer of music for film, television, recordings, and the concert hall. Highly regarded as a jazz instrumentalist and versatile composer, Beal creates music that often incorporates a synthesis of im ...

* Don Davis *

John Debney John Cardon Debney (born August 18, 1956) is an American composer and conductor of film, television, and video game scores. His work encompasses a variety of mediums and genres including comedy, horror, thriller, and action-adventure. He is a ...

Ramin Djawadi Ramin Djawadi (, fa, رامین جوادی; born 19 July 1974) is an Iran, Iranian and Germans, German film score, score composer. He is known for his scores for the 2008 Marvel film ''Iron Man (2008 film), Iron Man'' and the HBO series ''Game o ...

George Fenton George Richard Ian Howe (born 19 October 1949), known professionally as George Fenton, is an English composer. Best known for his work writing film scores and music for television, he has received five Academy Award nominations, several Ivor No ...

Billy Goldenberg William Leon Goldenberg (February 10, 1936 – August 3, 2020) was an American composer and songwriter, best known for his work on television and film. Early life Goldenberg was born in February 10, 1936 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, ...

Ludwig Göransson Ludwig Emil Tomas Göransson (; ; born 1 September 1984) is a Swedish composer, conductor and record producer. He has scored films such as ''Fruitvale Station'', the ''Rocky'' franchise entries ''Creed'' and ''Creed II'', ''Venom'', and '' Ten ...

Joseph LoDuca Joseph LoDuca (born 1958) is an American television and film score composer best known for his work writing television scores for the series ''Spartacus'', ''Leverage'', ''Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'', '' Xena: Warrior Princess'', ''Young ...

John Lunn John Lunn (born 13 May 1956) is an Emmy Award winning Scottish composer, known for the music of the series ''Downton Abbey'' and many other television and movie soundtracks. Early life and education Lunn was born in May 1956. His father was a ...

* Joel Rosenbaum *

Laurence Rosenthal Laurence Rosenthal (born November 4, 1926) is an American composer, arranger, and conductor for theater, television, film, and the concert hall. Biography Born in Detroit, Michigan, Rosenthal attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New ...

Morton Stevens Morton Stevens (January 30, 1929 – November 11, 1991) was an American film score composer. In 1965, he became director of music for CBS West Coast operations. He is probably best known for composing the theme music for '' Hawaii Five-O'', a ...

Composers with multiple nominations

;16 nominations *

Alf Clausen Alf Heiberg Clausen (born March 28, 1941) is an American film and television composer. He is best known for his work scoring many episodes of ''The Simpsons'', for which he was the sole composer between 1990 and 2017. Clausen has scored or orc ...

;10 nominations *

* Patrick Williams ;8 nominations *

* Dennis McCarthy * David Rose ;7 nominations *

Mark Snow Mark Snow (born Martin Fulterman; August 26, 1946) is an American composer for film and television. Among his most famous compositions is the theme music for science fiction television series ''The X-Files''. The theme reached no. 2 on the UK Si ...

;6 nominations *

Angela Morley Angela Morley (10 March 192414 January 2009) was an English composer and conductor who became a familiar household name to BBC Radio listeners in the 1950s. She attributed her entry into composing and arranging largely to the influence and en ...

;5 nominations *

* Bruce Babcock * Don Davis *

W. G. Snuffy Walden William Garrett Walden, known as W. G. Snuffy Walden (born February 13, 1950), is an American musician and composer of film and television soundtracks. Walden is an Emmy Award winner for the theme music to ''The West Wing'' (NBC), has been nomin ...

;4 nominations *

Jay Chattaway Jay Chattaway (born July 8, 1946) is an American composer of film and television scores. He is mainly known for his work as composer for several ''Star Trek'' television series: '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nin ...

Dick DeBenedictis Richard “Dick” DeBenedictis (born January 23, 1937) is an American composer noted for composing music for television shows including ''Perry Mason'' and its movies from 1985 until 1993, '' Police Story'', '' Columbo'', '' Father Dowling Myster ...

* Charles Fox *

Pete Rugolo Pietro "Pete" Rugolo (December 25, 1915 – October 16, 2011) was an American jazz composer, arranger and record producer. Life and career Rugolo was born in San Piero Patti, Sicily. His family emigrated to the United States in 1920 and settle ...

Lalo Schifrin Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin (born June 21, 1932) is an Argentine-American pianist, composer, arranger and conductor. He is best known for his large body of film and TV scores since the 1950s, incorporating jazz and Latin American musical elemen ...

* Nan Schwartz ;3 nominations * Jon Ehrlich *

Michael Giacchino Michael Giacchino (; born October 10, 1967) is an American composer of music for films, television and video games. He has also served as a director for television. He has received many awards, including an Oscar for his work on '' Up'' (2009), a ...

Earle Hagen Earle Harry Hagen (July 9, 1919 – May 26, 2008) was an American composer who created music for movies and television. His best-known TV themes include those for ''Make Room for Daddy'', ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'', ''I Spy'', ''That Girl'' and ...

Siddhartha Khosla Goldspot is a New York-based band. Founded by singer/songwriter/producer and television and film composer Siddhartha Khosla, the group has since received critical acclaim for its debut album ''Tally of the Yes Men'' (''Tally''), and second alb ...

Martin Phipps Martin Phipps (born 1 August 1968) is a British composer, who has worked on numerous film and television projects. Life and career He is the son of Sue Pears and Jack Phipps, an arts administrator who had previously founded a management agen ...

Joel Rosenbaum Joel Rosenbaum (born October 4, 1933) is a professor of cell biology at Yale University. Rosenbaum received his bachelor's degree from Syracuse University in 1955, and later his M.Sc. Ed. from St. Lawrence University in 1957. He returned later to ...

;2 nominations * Chris Bacon *

Steven Bramson Steven (Steve) Bramson is a professional composer who has been nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards, and has won one Daytime Emmy Award and three ASCAP Awards. He has written music to George Lucas' ''Young Indiana Jones'' and the CBS series ...

Nicholas Britell Nicholas Britell (born October 17, 1980) is an American film composer. He has scored both of Barry Jenkins's studio films, ''Moonlight'' (2016) and ''If Beale Street Could Talk'' (2018), both of which received nominations for Best Original Sco ...

Velton Ray Bunch Velton Ray Bunch (born January 22, 1948 in Goldsboro, North Carolina) is a film and television composer. Sometimes credited as ''Ray Bunch''. Bunch has been nominated for an Emmy three times for his work, and won the fourth time for his score t ...

John Cacavas John Harry Cacavas (August 13, 1930 – January 28, 2014) was an American composer and conductor probably best known for his television scores, such as ''Kojak'', and ''The Time Machine,'' for which he was the chief composer. He also composed '' ...

* Jason Derlatka * Robert Duncan *

Gerald Fried Gerald Fried (born February 13, 1928) is an American composer, conductor, and oboist known for his film and television scores. He composed music for well-known television series of the 1960s and 70s, including ''Mission: Impossible'', ''Gilliga ...

Joel Goldsmith Joel King Goldsmith (November 19, 1957 – April 29, 2012) was an American composer of film, television, and video game music. Biography Joel Goldsmith was born on November 19, 1957, in Los Angeles, California, the third of four children o ...

Jan Hammer Jan Hammer () (born 17 April 1948) is a Czech-American musician, composer, and record producer. He first gained his most visible audience while playing keyboards with the Mahavishnu Orchestra during the early 1970s, as well as his film scores fo ...

Natalie Holt Natalie Ann Holt is a British composer who has worked on numerous film and television projects. She is primarily recognised for her work on several notable productions, including ''Paddington (film), Paddington'' (2014) and ''Loki (TV series), L ...

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American record producer, musician, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer. His career spans 70 years in the entertainment industry with a record of 80 Grammy Award n ...

* Ron Jones *

Fred Karlin Frederick James Karlin (June 16, 1936 – March 26, 2004) was an American composer of more than 130 scores for feature films and television movies. He also was an accomplished trumpeter adept at playing jazz, blues, classical, rock, and mediev ...

Laura Karpman Laura Anne Karpman (born March 1, 1959) is an American composer, whose work has included music for film, television, video games, theater, and the concert hall. She has won five Emmy Awards for her work. Karpman was trained at The Juilliard Sch ...

Abel Korzeniowski Abel Korzeniowski (; born 18 July 1972) is a Polish composer of film and theatre scores. Life and career Korzeniowski was born in Kraków. He had contact with music from early childhood: his mother Barbara plays the cello and both his brothers A ...

* Trevor Morris *

Blake Neely Blake Neely (born April 28, 1969) is an Emmy Award-winning American composer, conductor, and orchestrator. He has been nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards for his work on ''Everwood'', '' The Pacific'', and ''Pan Am'', and won the Emmy (20 ...

J. A. C. Redford Jonathan Alfred Clawson Redford (born July 14, 1953) is an American composer, arranger, orchestrator, and conductor. He is also the author of ''Welcome All Wonders: A Composer's Journey''. Artistic development A wide variety of musical influenc ...

Jeff Richmond Jeffrey Wayne Richmond (born January 7, 1961) is an American composer, actor, director, and producer. He composed the music for, and directed multiple episodes of '' 30 Rock'', a sitcom created by and starring his wife, Tina Fey. He also executiv ...

Adam Taylor Adam Taylor is an American composer. He is best known for his contributions to film and television scores, such as ''The Handmaid's Tale (2017-present)'', ''Before I Fall'', ''I Think We're Alone Now'' and ''Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (20 ...

* Duncan Thum * Jack Urbont

References

{{Primetime Emmy Award categories Film music awards Music Composition for a Series