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Leo Birenberg

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Leo Birenberg is an American composer and orchestrator for film and television.

Career

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Born in Kentucky and raised in Chicago, Birenberg studied composition at NYU and USC.[1] While there, he started composing his first scores in collaboration with his roommate, filmmaker Jeremy Reitz.[2]

After graduating, he had a chance encounter with composer Christophe Beck, who ended up taking Birenberg on as a mentee.[3] Under Beck's tutelage, Birenberg worked as the score coordinator on numerous large projects, including The Muppets, Pitch Perfect, Runner Runner, and Frozen. In 2014, Birenberg started composing additional music for Beck’s films, including Muppets Most Wanted, Edge of Tomorrow, and Ant-Man.[4]

In 2014, Birenberg also started composing his own original scores for television shows, including Next Time on Lonny, The Britishes, Big Time in Hollywood, FL,[5] and the YouTube Red series Sing It![6]

In 2016, Birenberg received an email from producer Eric Appel, and asked to compose music for the then-upcoming FX series Son of Zorn.[7] Upon approaching the series, he took the original up-beat synth-heavy score and replaced it with something that spanned a vast array of musical styles, sampling the styles of country music and church choirs.[8] In 2017, Birenberg released a soundtrack for the show. That same year, Birenberg also started composing music for the Seeso original series Take My Wife. He also composed the score for the 2017 comedy F the Prom.[9]

In 2018, Birenberg co-composed YouTube and Sony series Cobra Kai with composer Zach Robinson.[10] They also scored the second season, airing in April 2019. In addition, he recently scored the music for Dreamworks' Kung Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny.[11]

In 2019, Leo composed the music for Hulu's Pen15.[12] He also recently scored Adult Swim's animated series Tigtone and Tribeca Film Festival selection Plus One.[13]

Filmography

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Films

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Year Title Notes
2023 Bottoms Composer with Charli XCX
2022 Weird: The Al Yankovic Story Composer with Zach Robinson
2022 Butcher's Crossing Composer
2019 Plus One Composer
2017 F the Prom Composer
2015 The Peanuts Movie Composer (additional music)
2015 Ant-Man Composer (additional music)
2015 Hot Tub Time Machine 2 Composer (additional music), Orchestrator
2014 Good Kill Composer (additional music)
2014 Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day Score Producer
2014 Red Army Composer
2014 Edge of Tomorrow Composer (additional music)
2014 Muppets Most Wanted Composer (additional music)
2014 Endless Love Composer (additional music), Score Producer
2013 Frozen Score Coordinator
2013 Runner Runner Score Coordinator
2013 R.I.P.D. Score Coordinator
2013 The Internship Score Coordinator
2013 The Hangover Part III Score Coordinator
2013 Movie 43 Composer (segments: Happy Birthday)
2013 Charlie Countryman Score Coordinator
2012 Struck By Lightning Score Coordinator
2012 The Guilt Trip Score Coordinator
2012 Pitch Perfect Music Assistant
2012 The Watch Score Coordinator
2012 This Means War Score Coordinator
2011 The Muppets Score Coordinator
2011 Tower Heist Score Coordinator

Television

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Year Title Notes
2024 Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Composer with Zach Robinson
2024 Jurassic World: Chaos Theory Composer; Original Jurassic Park themes by John Williams
2023 Twisted Metal Composer with Zach Robinson
2022 Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin Composer with Zach Robinson
2022 Interrupting Chicken Composer
2020–2022 Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous Composer; Original Jurassic Park and Jurassic World themes by John Williams and Michael Giacchino
2020 Central Park Composer (pilot)
2019 Tigtone Composer
2018-2019 Kung Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny Composer
2018–present Cobra Kai Composer with Zach Robinson
2016 Take My Wife Composer
2016 Son of Zorn Composer
2016 Sing It! Composer
2015 Big Time in Hollywood, FL Composer (12 episodes)

References

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  1. ^ "Leo Birenberg - USC Department of Screen Scoring". uscscoring.com.
  2. ^ Schroeder, Jules. "A 28-Year-Old Hollywood Composer Shares 3 Ways To Optimize Creativity Under Pressure". Forbes.
  3. ^ Tobogan, Randy (1 February 2017). "Composer Coverage: Meet Leo Birenberg".
  4. ^ "Hitting the right notes with Leo Birenberg". 10 October 2016.
  5. ^ "Bringing Zorn to life musically with composer Leo Birenberg (interview)". 13 July 2017.
  6. ^ "Leo Birenberg on composing the new series Son Of Zorn and the influence of "Barbarian percussion" (EXCLUSIVE) - The Iris". iris.theaureview.com.
  7. ^ "Son of Zorn Q&A: Leo Birenberg Discusses Composing Music on a Live-Action/Animated Series". 21 December 2016.
  8. ^ marj.galas@variety.com (2 February 2017). "Finding The Heart In Comedy: "Son Of Zorn" Composer Leo Birenberg".
  9. ^ "Son of Zorn - Interview with Composer Leo Birenberg". 11 July 2017.
  10. ^ "Leo Birenberg & Zach Robinson Scoring 'Karate Kid' Sequel Series 'Cobra Kai'". Film Music Reporter. 3 February 2018.
  11. ^ "Composer Leo Birenberg on solving the musical puzzles of film and TV". Fox 11 LA. 30 November 2018.
  12. ^ "Weekly TV Music Roundup". Film Music Reporter. 3 February 2019.
  13. ^ "Exclusive Interview – Composers Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson on Cobra Kai". Flickering Myth. 11 May 2018.
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