John Powell

John Powell (born 18 September, 1963) is an English composer and conductor, best known for his scores to motion pictures. After studying at London's Trinity College of Music, Powell rose to fame in the late 1990s and 2000s, scoring numerous animated films, in addition to his live-action collaborations with directors Doug Liman and Paul Greengrass. He has been based in Los Angeles since 1997 and has composed the scores to over fifty feature films. His 2010 score for the film How to Train Your Dragon earned him his first Academy Award nomination at the 83rd Academy Awards. He was a member of Hans Zimmer's music studio, Remote Control Productions, and collaborated frequently with other composers from the studio, including Harry Gregson-Williams and Zimmer himself.

Life and career
Powell was born in London. He originally trained as a violinist as a child, before studying at London's Trinity College of Music. He later ventured into jazz and rock music, playing in a soul band the Fabulistics. On leaving college, he composed music for commercials, which led to a job as an assistant to the composer Patrick Doyle on several film productions, including Much Ado About Nothing.

In 1995, he co-founded the London-based commercial music house Independently Thinking Music, which produced scores for more than 100 British and French commercials and independent films.

Powell's first film score was for the 1990 film Stay Lucky. He moved to Los Angeles in 1997, and scored his first major film, Face/Off. This was followed by Antz in 1998, the first film produced by DreamWorks Animation which he co-scored with fellow British composer Harry Gregson-Williams. Two years later the two collaborated again to compose the score to Chicken Run, and again the following year on Shrek, which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. All subsequent Shrek films however, have been scored solely by Gregson-Williams. During 2001 he also scored Evolution, I Am Sam, Just Visiting, and Rat Race.

In 2002 Powell was hired to score The Bourne Identity, after Carter Burwell left the project, and has gone on to score all of director Doug Liman's subsequent films. He also returned to score the other two films in the series; The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, which were both directed by British director Paul Greengrass.

Following the Bourne films, Powell collaborated with Liman again to score the 2005 film Mr. & Mrs. Smith. That year, he also scored Robots.

In 2006, he scored Greengrass' United 93. He also composed music for Ice Age: The Meltdown, following David Newman, who scored the first Ice Age film, as well as X-Men: The Last Stand, and Happy Feet, for which he won a Film & TV Music Award for Best Score for an Animated Feature Film. The following year he scored The Bourne Ultimatum. In 2008 he collaborated with composer Hans Zimmer to score Kung Fu Panda, and also wrote music that year for Jumper, Hancock, and Bolt. In 2009 he scored the third film of Ice Age series; Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

In 2010, Powell composed the score to How to Train Your Dragon. This was his sixth score for a DreamWorks Animation film, although the first where he composed the whole score himself. It also became his first work to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score. That year, he has also scored Greengrass's Green Zone, and Knight and Day.

Awards

 * 1998 ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films - Face/Off
 * 1999 ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films - Antz (with Harry Gregson-Williams)
 * 2001 ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films - Chicken Run (with Harry Gregson-Williams)
 * 2001 Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Music Score an Animated Feature Production - Shrek (with Harry Gregson-Williams)
 * 2002 ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films - Shrek (with Harry Gregson-Williams)
 * 2003 ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films - The Bourne Identity
 * 2004 ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films - The Italian Job
 * 2005 ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films - The Bourne Supremacy
 * 2006 ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films - Mr. & Mrs. Smith
 * 2006 ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films - Robots
 * 2009 Annie Award for Best Music in an Animated Feature Production - Kung Fu Panda (with Hans Zimmer)
 * 2009 Annie Award for Best Music in an Animated Television Production or Short Form - Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Furious Five (with Henry Jackman and Hans Zimmer)
 * 2011 Annie Award for Best Music in an Animated Feature Production - How To Train Your Dragon
 * 2011 IFMCA Award for Best Original Score for an Animated Feature - How To Train Your Dragon
 * 2011 IFMCA Award for Film Score of the Year - How To Train Your Dragon

Nominations

 * 1998 Saturn Award for Best Music - Face/Off
 * 1999 Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Music in an Animated Feature Production - Antz (with Harry Gregson-Williams)
 * 2000 Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Music in an Animated Feature Production - The Road to El Dorado (with Hans Zimmer, Elton John and Tim Rice)
 * 2001 Saturn Award for Best Music - The Road to El Dorado (with Hans Zimmer)
 * 2001 Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards for Best Original Score - Chicken Run (with Harry Gregson-Williams)
 * 2002 BAFTA Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music - Shrek (with Harry Gregson-Williams)
 * 2002 Saturn Award for Best Music - Shrek (with Harry Gregson-Williams)
 * 2005 Golden Satellite Award for Best Original Score - Alfie (with David A. Stewart and Mick Jagger)
 * 2007 Saturn Award for Best Music - X-Men: The Last Stand
 * 2007 Annie Award for Best Music in an Animated Feature Production - Ice Age: The Meltdown
 * 2007 BAFTA Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music - Happy Feet
 * 2008 Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media - Happy Feet
 * 2008 Satellite Award for Best Original Score - Horton Hears a Who!
 * 2008 Saturn Award for Best Music - The Bourne Ultimatum
 * 2009 Saturn Award for Best Music - [Jumper]]
 * 2009 Annie Award for Best Music in an Animated Feature Production - Horton Hears a Who!
 * 2010 Annie Award for Music in a Feature Production - Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
 * 2011 Saturn Award for Best Music - How To Train Your Dragon
 * 2011 BAFTA Award for Best Original Music - How To Train Your Dragon
 * 2011 Academy Award for Best Original Score - How To Train Your Dragon