Geoffrey Zanelli is an American composer working primarily in the medium of film, television, and video game scores. His early career was notable for scoring additional music on roughly 30 film scores written by

Hans Zimmer Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Oscars and four Grammys, and has been nominated for two Emmys and a Tony. Zimmer was also named on the list of Top 100 Living G ...

, John Powell,

Harry Gregson-Williams Harry Gregson-Williams (born 13 December 1961) is a British composer, conductor, orchestrator, and record producer. He has composed music for video games, television and films including the ''Metal Gear'' series, '' Spy Game'', ''Phone Booth'' ...

, and

Steve Jablonsky Steve Jablonsky (born October 9, 1970) is an American composer for film, television and video games, best known for his musical scores in the ''Transformers'' film series. Some of his frequent collaboration partners include film directors Michae ...

including several blockbuster films. He has since moved on to more solo work, winning a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited Series, Movie, or Special for his score to the miniseries ''Into the West''. Aside from film and television scores, Zanelli also works with recording artists, writing arrangements for

Steve Martin Stephen Glenn Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. He has won five Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 2013. Additionally, he was nominate ...

, Edie Brickell,

Robbie Williams Robert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, and achieved commercial success after launching a solo career in 1996. His debut stud ...

, The Webb Sisters, Mest and

Story of the Year Story of the Year is an American rock band formed in St. Louis, Missouri, Story of the Year at Allmusic.comAccessed May 17, 2007. in 1995 under the name 67 North. The band eventually changed their name to Big Blue Monkey in 1998, and then subs ...

. He is credited as a guitarist/bassist/keyboardist on the song "I'm Not Dead" from recording artist

Pink Pink is the color of a namesake flower that is a pale tint of red. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, politeness, ...

Life and work

Zanelli is a graduate of 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 ...

. Zanelli began his musical career as a guitar player and songwriter for local acts in Southern California. While attending the prestigious

on scholarship, Zanelli dual majored in Film Scoring and Music Production/Engineering. He was the recipient of both the Doug Timm Award in recognition of his film scoring work and the Music Production and Engineering Scholar Award. In 1994,

met Zanelli. Believing him to be a promising young talent, Zimmer invited him to Los Angeles to join his group of film composers. Zanelli earned a reputation as a workhorse while working as an engineer on the debut album from Goldfinger as well as Zimmer's Oscar Award-nominated score for '' The Preacher's Wife''. Zanelli's experience and desire to collaborate led him to work with British composer John Powell on his first Hollywood feature, ''

Face/Off ''Face/Off'' is a 1997 American science fiction action thriller film directed by John Woo, written by Mike Werb and Michael Colleary, and starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage. The first Hollywood film in which Woo was given major creativ ...

''. Throughout the following years he built the foundation for his scoring career, composing with Powell, Hans Zimmer,

, and

on many feature films, including: '' Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl'', '' Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides'', '' Rango'' and the

Golden Globe The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of ...

-nominated scores for '' The Last Samurai'' and ''

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the ...

''. One of his earliest solo works,

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Sp ...

's miniseries '' Into the West'', earned him an Emmy. In approximately one year, Zanelli scored the films '' Disturbia'', ''

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'', '' Outlander'', ''

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'', ''

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'' and ''

Gamer A gamer is a proactive hobbyist who plays interactive games, especially video games, tabletop role-playing games, and skill-based card games, and who plays for usually long periods of time. Some gamers are competitive, meaning they routin ...

''. Harking back to his days as a songwriter, he co-wrote the song "Don't Make Me Wait" for ''Disturbia''. He currently writes at Hans Zimmer's Remote Control Productions. In early 2013, influential film blog

Ain't It Cool News Ain't It Cool News (AICN) is an entertainment news website founded by Harry Knowles and run by his sister Dannie Knowles since September 2017, dedicated to news, rumors, and reviews of upcoming and current films, television, and comic book proje ...

called his score for '' The Odd Life of Timothy Green'' the best score of 2012. In 2017, he composed the score to '' Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales'', picking up the mantle from long-time series composer

. In June 2018, he composed the score, with

Jon Brion Jon Brion is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and composer. He performed with the Excerpts, the Bats, 'Til Tuesday and the Grays before becoming an established producer and film score composer. Brion has ...

, in ''

Christopher Robin Christopher Robin is a character created by A. A. Milne, based on his son Christopher Robin Milne. The character appears in the author's popular books of poetry and ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' stories, and has subsequently appeared in various Disney ...

''.

Filmography

Film

As primary score composer

As composer of additional music

Television

Video games

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Official Website

Geoff Zanelli
on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

*
Article about Zanelli's Emmy win for ''Into The West''

Soundtrack.net's coverage of the recording of Zanelli's score for Disturbia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zanelli, Geoff American film score composers American male film score composers Berklee College of Music alumni La-La Land Records artists Living people Musicians from California Primetime Emmy Award winners Video game composers Year of birth missing (living people)