# Kris Bowers

Kristopher Bowers (born April 5, 1989) is an American composer, pianist, and documentary director. He has composed scores for films, including Green Book, King Richard, The Color Purple, and The Wild Robot and television series, among them Bridgerton, Mrs. America, Dear White People, and When They See Us.
Bowers is the recipient of the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Direction and Composition for Amazon Prime Video's adaptation of The Snowy Day. He has garnered multiple nominations at the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, Grammy Awards, and Critics' Choice Awards.
Bowers co-directed, with Ben Proudfoot, the short documentaries A Concerto Is a Conversation (2021) and The Last Repair Shop (2023), the latter winning the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film.
Throughout his career, Bowers has recorded, performed and collaborated with José James, Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, and Kanye West.
He has also collaborated with filmmakers Blitz Bazawule, Reinaldo Marcus Green, Malcolm D. Lee, Chris Sanders, and Justin Simien.

## Life and career

Bowers was born in Los Angeles, California, on April 5, 1989. His father is a film and television writer, and his mother is an executive at DirecTV. Although neither of his parents received more than a high school education, they wanted their son to play the piano, so they played recordings of pianists while he was still in the womb. They sent him to lessons beginning at the age of 4. He had private classical music lessons starting at around the age of 9. He listened to "classic soul records and hip-hop before falling under the spell of jazz, classical music, and film scores." Bowers studied jazz and classical piano at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts where his teachers included Mulgrew Miller and Donald Vega. He studied jazz at Colburn School for Performing Arts. He graduated in 2006 then attended Juilliard and obtained a bachelor's and master's degree in jazz performance. While a student, he performed frequently in New York City.
In the same year, Bowers played on Watch the Throne, a Jay Z and Kanye West album. He then toured with Marcus Miller during 2012. He has collaborated with musicians in several genres. In late 2013, he recorded his debut album Heroes + Misfits (Concord, 2014). An AllMusic reviewer commented that the pianist was "based in jazz but with an ear for contemporary R&B, film scores, and electronic music". The album premiered at No. 1 on the iTunes Jazz charts. His first film composition was for the 2013 documentary Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me. In 2014, Bowers performed at the International Jazz Day Concert in Japan, the Festival de Jazz de Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain, and at the London Jazz Festival.
In 2015, his work on the showtime documentary Kobe Bryant's Muse gained him attention as an up-and-coming composer well-versed in a wide range of compositional styles. In the same year, he scored two other Showtime documentaries: I Am Giant about the football player Victor Cruz and Play It Forward about Tony Gonzalez. He was one of six composers invited to the Sundance Composers Lab in 2015. In 2016, Bowers was invited to perform at The White House for the International Jazz Day Concert hosted by President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama.
In 2017, Bowers worked on the documentary Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You and the film Little Boxes, as well as the television programs Religion of Sports and Dear White People. Also in 2016, Bowers composed music for the Amazon children's Christmas special, The Snowy Day, based on the 1962 book of the same title by Ezra Jack Keats. It was for this show that Bowers received a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Music Direction and Composition.
Bowers wrote the score for the 2018 film Green Book, which was nominated for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Score. He was also the piano teacher for the film's star, Mahershala Ali, and was Ali's stand in for some close ups of hands playing. In 2019 Bowers wrote the score for Ava DuVernay's mini-series When They See Us. He received his first Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards nominations for Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited or Anthology Series, Movie or Special.
In 2020, Bowers and Ben Proudfoot codirected the short documentary film A Concerto Is a Conversation, centering on Bowers' conversations with his grandfather about personal and family history. The film, which premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, was an Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary (Short Subject) at the 93rd Academy Awards. Since 2020, Bowers has been composing the score for Netflix's period drama, Bridgerton, being nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series.
Between 2020 and 2021, Bowers was involved in several projects. He worked on comedy horror film Bad Hair.
Bowers wrote the score of the 2021 film Space Jam: A New Legacy. and the 2022 film Chevalier. In May 2022, the Monterey Jazz Festival commissioned Bowers to compose a work, which he presented that September at the annual event. The piece, Ásylo (Greek for sanctuary), commemorates the 30th anniversary of the nearby Monterey National Marine Sanctuary. Bowers had previously performed at the festival as a high school student for three years starting in 2003.
In May 2023, Bowers worked on two original soundtrack projects for the series Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story: the first one as the score of the series, while the second one provided for the reinterpretation in a classical music key of pop songs, working with Alicia Keys on the remaining of her song "If I Ain't Got You" as the lead single of the album. In December 2023, Bowers composed the score of The Color Purple by Blitz the Ambassador.

## Collaborating and performing

In 2015, Bowers teamed up with the choreographer Kyle Abraham, to create Absent Matter, which premiered at the Joyce Theater in New York City. During the following year, Bowers and Abraham collaborated again on Untitled America for Alvin Ailey.
Bowers performed at the White House for the 2016 International Jazz Day, hosted by President of the United States Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. Bowers participated as a composer in the Sundance Film Composers Lab at Skywalker Sound in 2015.
Bowers has paired his music with extensive and immersive dining experiences. In 2016, he was hired by Bang & Olufsen to create a score to accompany a multi-course meal prepared by chef Fredrik Berselius, founder of Aska. In 2017, Krug commissioned Bowers to write compositions inspired by and paired with a signature Krug champagne.

## Artistry

In a review of one of his early shows as a bandleader, The New York Times referred to Bowers' playing as "serious, thoughtful, organized, restrained; he made the piano sound good. His set had range and ambition and said something strong, sweet, and normative about phrasing and rhythm in jazz right now."
Bowers' influences include "Oscar Peterson, Wynton Kelly ('for his comping and incredible feel'), Duke Ellington ('for his compositions'), Ahmad Jamal and Count Basie", as well as John Williams.

## Awards and honors

| Ceremony | Year | Category | Nominated Work | Result |
| Academy Awards | 2021 | Best Documentary Short Subject | A Concerto Is a Conversation (with Ben Proudfoot) | Nominated |
| Academy Awards | 2024 | Best Documentary Short Subject | The Last Repair Shop (with Ben Proudfoot) | Won |
| Academy Awards | 2025 | Best Original Score | The Wild Robot | Nominated |
| African-American Film Critics Association Awards | 2024 | Best Music | The Color Purple | Won |
| African-American Film Critics Association Awards | 2025 | Best Original Score | The Wild Robot | Won |
| Annie Awards | 2025 | Outstanding Achievement for Music in a Feature Production | The Wild Robot | Won |
| Astra Film and Creative Awards | 2024 | Best Short Film | The Last Repair Shop | Nominated |
| Astra Film and Creative Awards | 2025 | Artisan Achievement Award | Himself | Honoree |
| Astra Film and Creative Awards | 2025 | Best Original Score | The Wild Robot | Nominated |
| Black Reel Awards | 2019 | Outstanding Music (Comedy, Drama or Limited Series) | When They See Us | Nominated |
| Black Reel Awards | 2022 | Outstanding Original Score | Respect | Nominated |
| Black Reel Awards | 2022 | Outstanding Musical Score (TV Movie or Limited Series) | Bridgerton | Nominated |
| Black Reel Awards | 2024 | Outstanding Original Score | Chevalier | Nominated |
| Black Reel Awards | 2024 | Outstanding Original Score | The Color Purple | Won |
| Black Reel Awards | 2024 | Outstanding Independent Short Film | The Last Repair Shop (directior with Ben Proudfoot) | Nominated |
| Black Reel Awards | 2025 | Outstanding Score | The Wild Robot | Won |
| Calgary International Film Festival | 2023 | Best Documentary Short Film | The Last Repair Shop | Won |
| Celebration of Black Cinema and Television | 2024 | Composer Award | The Wild Robot | Won |
| Critics' Choice Awards | 2018 | Best Score | Green Book | Nominated |
| Critics' Choice Awards | 2025 | Best Score | The Wild Robot | Nominated |
| Critics' Choice Documentary Awards | 2023 | Best Short Documentary | The Last Repair Shop | Won |
| Critics' Choice Documentary Awards | 2023 | Best Score | The Last Repair Shop | Nominated |
| Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association | 2024 | Best Musical Score | The Wild Robot | Won |
| Daytime Emmy Award | 2017 | Outstanding Music Direction and Composition | The Snowy Day (with Rossanna S. Wright) | Won |
| Golden Globe Award | 2025 | Best Original Score | The Wild Robot | Nominated |
| Grammy Awards | 2020 | Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella | "Blue Skies" | Nominated |
| Grammy Awards | 2022 | Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media | Bridgerton: Season 1 | Nominated |
| Grammy Awards | 2025 | Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media | The Color Purple | Nominated |
| Hollywood Music in Media Awards | 2018 | Best Original Score in a Feature Film | Green Book | Nominated |
| Hollywood Music in Media Awards | 2019 | Best Original Score in a TV Show/Limited Series | When They See Us | Won |
| Hollywood Music in Media Awards | 2021 | Best Original Score in a Feature Film | King Richard | Nominated |
| Hollywood Music in Media Awards | 2021 | Best Original Song in a TV Show/Limited Series | "Together All the Way" from Dear White People (with Siedah Garrett) | Nominated |
| Hollywood Music in Media Awards | 2023 | Best Original Score in a Feature Film | Chevalier | Nominated |
| Hollywood Music in Media Awards | 2023 | Best Original Score – Short Film (Documentary) | The Last Repair Shop (with Katya Richardson) | Nominated |
| Hollywood Music in Media Awards | 2023 | Best Main Title Theme – TV Show/Limited Series | Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story | Nominated |
| Hollywood Music in Media Awards | 2024 | Best Original Score – Animated Film | The Wild Robot | Won |
| Hollywood Music in Media Awards | 2024 | Best Exhibitions, Theme Parks or Special Projects | Dreaming Freedom (as part of musicians) | Nominated |
| Middleburg Film Festival | 2023 | Sheila Johnson Vanguard Award | Himself | Won |
| NAACP Image Awards | 2023 | Outstanding Soundtrack/Compilation Album | Bridgerton Season Two (Soundtrack from the Netflix Series) | Nominated |
| NAACP Image Awards | 2024 | Outstanding Original Score for TV/Film | Kris Bowers | Nominated |
| Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards | 2019 | Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited or Anthology Series, Movie or Special | "Part 2" in When They See Us | Nominated |
| Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards | 2020 | Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited or Anthology Series, Movie or Special | "Reagan" in Mrs. America | Nominated |
| Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards | 2021 | Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music | Bridgerton (with Michael Dean Parsons) | Nominated |
| Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards | 2021 | Outstanding Music Composition for a Series | "Diamond of the First Water" in Bridgerton | Nominated |
| San Francisco International Film Festival | 2021 | Best Family Film | A Concerto Is a Conversation (with Ben Proudfoot) | Nominated |
| San Francisco International Film Festival | 2021 | Special Jury Award | A Concerto Is a Conversation (with Ben Proudfoot) | Won |
| San Francisco International Film Festival | 2024 | Best Original Score | The Wild Robot | Nominated |
| Satellite Awards | 2025 | Best Original Score | The Wild Robot | Nominated |
| Seattle Film Critics Society Awards | 2024 | Best Original Score | The Wild Robot | Nominated |
| Society of Composers & Lyricists Awards | 2020 | Outstanding Original Score for a Television or Streaming Production | When They See Us | Nominated |
| Society of Composers & Lyricists Awards | 2022 | Outstanding Original Song for a Comedy or Musical Visual Media Production | "Together All the Way" in Dear White People (with Siedah Garrett) | Nominated |
| Society of Composers & Lyricists Awards | 2025 | Outstanding Original Score for a Studio Film | The Wild Robot | Won |
| St. Louis Film Critics Association | 2024 | Best Score | The Wild Robot | Nominated |
| Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition | 2011 | Himself | Himself | Won |
| Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association | 2024 | Best Original Score | The Wild Robot | Nominated |
| World Soundtrack Awards | 2019 | Discovery of the Year | Green Book | Nominated |
| World Soundtrack Awards | 2019 | Television Composer of the Year | When They See Us | Nominated |
Honor
* Honor - DownBeat magazine: “25 for the Future”, 2016
* Honor - ROBIE Pioneer Award from the Jackie Robinson Foundation, 2019.

## Discography

An asterisk (*) indicates that the year is that of release.

### As leader/co-leader

| Year recorded | Title | Label | Personnel/Notes |
| 2012 | Heroes + Misfits | Concord | With Adam Agati (guitar), Burniss Earl Travis II (electric bass), Jamire Williams (drums); some tracks with Casey Benjamin (alto sax, vocoder) added; some tracks with Kenneth Whalum III (tenor sax) added; vocalists added are Chris Turner (3 tracks), Julia Easterlin (1 track), José James (1 track) |

### As sideman

| Year recorded | Leader | Title | Label |
| 2010–11 | Jay Z and Kanye West | Watch the Throne | Roc-A-Fella, Roc Nation, Def Jam |
| 2013* | Etienne Charles [de] | Creole Soul | Culture Shock |
| 2013* | Next Collective | Cover Art | Concord |
| 2014* | Robin Eubanks | Klassik Rock, Vol. 1 | Artist Share |
| 2014* | José James | While You Were Sleeping | Blue Note |
| 2014* | Takuya Kuroda | Rising Son | Blue Note |
| 2014* | Harvey Mason | Chameleon | Concord Jazz |
| 2016* | A Tribe Called Quest | We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service | Epic |
| 2017* | Maurice Brown | The Mood | Ropeadope |

## Works
### Films

| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
| 2016 | Little Boxes | Rob Meyer | |
| 2018 | Monsters and Men | Reinaldo Marcus Green | |
| 2018 | Green Book | Peter Farrelly | |
| 2020 | Bad Hair | Justin Simien | |
| 2021 | The United States vs. Billie Holiday | Lee Daniels | |
| 2021 | Space Jam: A New Legacy | Malcolm D. Lee | Replaced Hans Zimmer |
| 2021 | Respect | Liesl Tommy | |
| 2021 | King Richard | Reinaldo Marcus Green | |
| 2022 | Chevalier | Stephen Williams | |
| 2023 | Haunted Mansion | Justin Simien | |
| 2023 | Origin | Ava DuVernay | |
| 2023 | The Color Purple | Blitz Bazawule | |
| 2024 | Bob Marley: One Love | Reinaldo Marcus Green | |
| 2024 | The Wild Robot | Chris Sanders | Bowers' first score for an animated film |

### Television

| Year | Title | Network | Notes |
| 2016 | American Masters | PBS | Episode "Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You" |
| 2016 | The Snowy Day | Amazon Studios | TV special Won—Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Direction and Composition |
| 2016 | Religion of Sports | DirecTV | Composed for 4 episodes |
| 2017–2021 | Dear White People | Netflix | |
| 2018 | Warriors of Liberty City | Starz | TV series documentary |
| 2018–2019 | For the People | ABC | |
| 2019 | When They See Us | Netflix | TV miniseries Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition (for "Part 2") |
| 2019–2022 | Raising Dion | Netflix | |
| 2019–2021 | Black Monday | Showtime | |
| 2019 | Star Trek: Short Treks | CBS All Access | Episode "The Girl Who Made the Stars" |
| 2020 | Mrs. America | FX on Hulu | TV miniseries Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition (for "Reagan") |
| 2020 | Bridgerton | Netflix | Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (for "Diamond Of The First Water") Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music Nominated — Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media |
| 2021 | Colin in Black & White | Netflix | |
| 2022 | Inventing Anna | Netflix | TV miniseries |
| 2022 | DMZ | HBO Max | TV miniseries |
| 2022 | We Own This City | HBO | TV miniseries |
| 2023 | Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story | Netflix | TV miniseries |
| 2023 | Secret Invasion | Disney+ | TV miniseries |

### Documentaries

| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
| 2013 | Seeds of Time | Sandy McLeod | |
| 2013 | Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me | Chiemi Karasawa | Credited as Kristopher Bowers |
| 2015 | Kobe Bryant's Muse | Gotham Chopra | |
| 2015 | I Am Giant: Victor Cruz | Gotham Chopra | |
| 2015 | Play It Forward | Andrea Blaugrund Nevins | |
| 2017 | Copwatch | Camilla Hall | |
| 2021 | A Concerto Is a Conversation | Co-director with Ben Proudfoot and composer |
| 2023 | The Last Repair Shop | Co-director with Ben Proudfoot and composer | Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film |

### Video games

| Year | Title | Studio | Notes |
| 2019 | Madden NFL 20 | EA Sports | |
| 2020 | Madden NFL 21 | EA Sports | |
| 2024 | EA Sports College Football 25 | EA Sports | Campus Clash Theme only |