# John Paesano

John Paesano (born July 2, 1977) is an American composer working primarily in film, television, and video games. He is known for collaborating with director Wes Ball on the Maze Runner film trilogy and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, as well as composing for the Marvel Television series Daredevil and The Defenders. As a video game composer, he has contributed music to the acclaimed titles Detroit: Become Human and the three installments in the Marvel's Spider-Man series. Paesano won the BAFTA Games Award for Music (Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales), as well as the D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition (Marvel's Spider-Man 2).

## Biography

Paesano was born in Birmingham, Michigan. He first studied classical music at Conservatoire de Paris located in Parc de la Villette, France before continuing his studies at Berklee College of Music pursuing a major in musical composition and film scoring. John knew from the age of nine years old, he wanted to become a music composer. He then worked under composers Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams providing additional music for the former, and orchestrating for the latter. Paesano cites Steven Spielberg's 1987 film Empire of the Sun as his motivation for getting into film scoring.
In 2014, Paesano was hired to compose the music for The Maze Runner. Speaking of the job, he recalled seeing Wes Ball's 2011 short film, Ruin and was intrigued by it, composing a short demo (which eventually would become the "Maze Runner" theme) for Ball. He visited the sets in New Orleans, observing the "environmental soundscape" and tried to incorporate the natural sounds into his score. He recorded the score with an orchestra at the Newman Scoring Stage with sessions running for 2 weeks. Paesano would later return to score the 2nd and 3rd film of the series, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials and Maze Runner: The Death Cure.
Paesano was later tasked with composing the score to Spider-Man developed by Insomniac Games, joining the game's development in the early stages. He worked with game director Bryan Intihar and brought about creating several character themes, emphasising the need for the music to be its "own character" in the game. Paesano ensured that his music struck a balance between the cinematics and the gameplay as he wanted the player to be fully immersed. He looked at distinguishing his music from past Spider-Man films and games and decided to focus on creating a musical identity for Peter Parker.
In 2021, he composed the music for the Avengers Campus themed area at Disney California Adventure, combining themes from the MCU's Avengers, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, Captain Marvel, and Black Panther films; a single entitled "Welcome Recruits" was released in April 2022.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Director(s) | Studio(s) | Notes |
| 2007 | Ben 10: Secret of the Omnitrix | Sebastian Montes Scooter Tidwell | Cartoon Network Studios | Television film |
| 2008 | Another Cinderella Story | Damon Santostefano | Warner Home Video Warner Premiere | Direct-to-video film |
| 2010 | Superman/Batman: Apocalypse | Lauren Montgomery | Warner Home Video Warner Premiere Warner Bros. Animation | Direct-to-video film |
| 2011 | S.W.A.T.: Firefight | Benny Boom | Stage 6 Films Sony Pictures Home Entertainment | Direct-to-video film |
| 2014 | When the Game Stands Tall | Thomas Carter | TriStar Pictures | |
| 2014 | The Maze Runner | Wes Ball | 20th Century Fox | |
| 2015 | Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials | Wes Ball | 20th Century Fox | |
| 2015 | My All American | Angelo Pizzo | Clarius Entertainment | |
| 2016 | Brain on Fire | Gerard Barrett | Broad Green Pictures | |
| 2016 | Almost Christmas | David E. Talbert | Universal Pictures | |
| 2017 | All Eyez on Me | Benny Boom | Morgan Creek Productions | |
| 2017 | Same Kind of Different as Me | Michael Carney | Paramount Pictures | |
| 2017 | The Star | Timothy Reckart | Columbia Pictures Sony Pictures Animation | |
| 2018 | Maze Runner: The Death Cure | Wes Ball | 20th Century Fox | |
| 2020 | Tesla | Michael Almereyda | IFC Films | |
| 2020 | The Secrets We Keep | Yuval Adler | Bleecker Street | |
| 2021 | Diary of a Wimpy Kid | Swinton O. Scott III | Walt Disney Pictures Bardel Entertainment Disney+ | |
| 2022 | Cheaper by the Dozen | Gail Lerner | Walt Disney Pictures Disney+ | |
| 2022 | Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules | Luke Cormican | Walt Disney Pictures Bardel Entertainment Disney+ | |
| 2022 | Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again | Matt Danner | Walt Disney Pictures 21 Laps Entertainment Atomic Cartoons Disney+ Alibaba Pictures | |
| 2023 | Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever | Luke Cormican | Walt Disney Pictures Bardel Entertainment Disney+ | |
| 2024 | Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes | Wes Ball | 20th Century Studios Oddball Entertainment Jason T. Reed Productions | |

### Television

| Year | Title |
| 2011 | Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas |
| 2012–2018 | DreamWorks Dragons |
| 2014 | Crisis |
| 2015–2018 | Daredevil |
| 2017 | The Defenders |
| 2017–2018 | Salvation |
| 2019–2023 | Truth Be Told |
| 2019–2022 | Devils |
| 2019 | Charmed |
| 2020 | Penny Dreadful: City of Angels |
| 2021 | The Hot Zone: Anthrax |
| 2021–present | Leonardo |
| 2021–present | Invincible |

### Video games

| Year | Title | Director(s) | Studio(s) | Notes |
| 2017 | Mass Effect: Andromeda | Mac Walters | BioWare / Electronic Arts | Debut work as video game composer |
| 2017 | Gran Turismo Sport | Kazunori Yamauchi | Polyphony Digital / Sony Interactive Entertainment | Also used in Gran Turismo 7 |
| 2018 | Detroit: Become Human | David Cage Gregory Diaconu | Quantic Dream | Composed the soundtrack for Markus, one of the main protagonists |
| 2018 | Marvel's Spider-Man | Bryan Intihar Ryan Smith | Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment / Marvel Games | Also composed for the game's downloadable content Spider-Man: The City That Never Sleeps |
| 2020 | Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales | Brian Horton Cameron Christian | Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment / Marvel Games | |
| 2023 | Marvel's Spider-Man 2 | Bryan Intihar Ryan Smith | Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment / Marvel Games | |

### Theme park attractions

| Year | Attraction | Location(s) | Ref. |
| 2021 | Avengers Campus | Disney California Adventure | |

## Awards

| Work | Year | Award | Outcome |
| DreamWorks Dragons | 2012 | Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement for Music in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production (for "How to Pick Your Dragon") | Won |
| The Maze Runner | 2014 | IFMCA Awards for Best Original Score for an Action/Adventure/Thriller Film | Nominated |
| The Maze Runner | 2015 | World Soundtrack Award for Public Choice Award | Won |
| The Defenders | 2018 | Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music | Nominated |
| Marvel's Spider-Man | 2018 | The Game Award for Best Score/Music | Nominated |
| Marvel's Spider-Man | 2018 | HMMA Award for Best Original Score – Video Game | Nominated |
| Marvel's Spider-Man | 2019 | D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition | Nominated |
| Detroit: Become Human | 2019 | D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition | Nominated |
| Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales | 2021 | BAFTA Games Award for Music | Won |
| Marvel's Spider-Man 2 | 2024 | D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition | Won |
| Marvel's Spider-Man 2 | 2024 | BAFTA Games Award for Music | Nominated |
| Marvel's Spider-Man 2 | 2025 | Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media | Nominated |