# John Swihart

John Swihart is an American musical composer for film and television. He is perhaps best known for his score to Napoleon Dynamite, Youth in Revolt, Employee of the Month, and his music for the TV shows How I Met Your Mother, and Go On.
John Swihart was raised in Bloomington, Indiana, the son of a physicist based at Indiana University. He spent a portion of his formative years in Europe and Asia, where his father would sabbatical.
John had some musical training at a very young age but was not deeply absorbed by music until he was about eight. Swihart would leave Indiana to attend Berklee College of Music, in Boston. He graduated in 1986.
Swihart played Chapman Stick, Bass, Guitar and Zither in the Boston, New York and Las Vegas Blue Man Group shows, on his way to Los Angeles. His breakout film project Napoleon Dynamite premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004.

## Works
### Films
#### 2000s

| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
| 2002 | When Boys Fly | Stewart Halpern-FingerhutLenid Rolov | — |
| 2002 | Bedford Springs | Marc Berlin | — |
| 2004 | Napoleon Dynamite | Jared Hess | — |
| 2004 | Purgatory House | Cindy Baer | — |
| 2004 | The Least Likely Candidate | Will Hartman | — |
| 2005 | The Great New Wonderful | Danny Leiner | — |
| 2005 | Mall Cop | David Greenspan | — |
| 2005 | Life on the Ledge | Lewis Helfer | — |
| 2005 | Our Very Own | Cameron Watson | — |
| 2005 | Nadine in Date Land | Amie Steir | Television film |
| 2005 | Daltry Calhoun | Katrina Holden Bronson | — |
| 2006 | One Last Dance | Max Makowski | — |
| 2006 | The Sasquatch Gang | Tim Skousen | — |
| 2006 | Champions | David Wike | — |
| 2006 | Bickford Shmeckler's Cool Ideas | Scott Lew | — |
| 2006 | Think Tank | Brian Petersen | — |
| 2006 | 5up 2down | Steven Kessler | — |
| 2006 | Employee of the Month | Greg Coolidge | — |
| 2007 | Full of It | Christian Charles | — |
| 2007 | The Hammer | Charles Herman-Wurmfeld | — |
| 2007 | The Education of Charlie Banks | Fred Durst | — |
| 2007 | The Brothers Solomon | Bob Odenkirk | — |
| 2007 | Randy and the Mob | Ray McKinnon | — |
| 2007 | South of Pico | Ernst Gossner | — |
| 2008 | The Last Word | Geoffrey Haley | — |
| 2008 | The Year of Getting to Know Us | Patrick Sisam | — |
| 2008 | Just Add Water | Hart Bochner | — |
| 2008 | Garden Party | Jason Freeland | — |
| 2008 | HottieBoombaLottie | Seth Packard | — |
| 2009 | Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach | Danny Leiner | — |
| 2009 | Spread | David Mackenzie | — |
| 2009 | Finding Bliss | Julie Davis | — |
| 2009 | New in Town | Jonas Elmer | — |
| 2009 | Youth in Revolt | Miguel Arteta | — |
| 2009 | The Other Woman | Don Roos | — |
| 2009 | Splinterheads | Brant Sersen | — |
| 2009 | The Strip | Jameel Khan | — |
| 2009 | Operating Instructions | Andy Tennant | Television film |

#### 2010s

| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
| 2010 | The Perfect Host | Nicholas Tomnay | — |
| 2010 | Hey Watch This | Christian Charles | — |
| 2011 | Flypaper | Rob Minkoff | — |
| 2011 | Losing Control | Valerie Weiss | — |
| 2011 | Lucky | Gil Cates Jr. | — |
| 2012 | For a Good Time, Call... | Jamie Travis | — |
| 2012 | Love Sick Love | Christian Charles | — |
| 2013 | Odd Thomas | Stephen Sommers | — |
| 2014 | The Young Kieslowski | Kerem Sanga | — |
| 2014 | As Night Comes | Richard Zelniker | — |
| 2015 | Accidental Love | Stephen Greene | — |
| 2015 | Staten Island Summer | Rhys Thomas | — |
| 2015 | A Light Beneath Their Feet | Valerie Weiss | — |
| 2016 | First Girl I Loved | Kerem Sanga | — |
| 2017 | Table 19 | Jeffrey Blitz | — |
| 2017 | A Symphony of Hope | Brian Weidling | — |
| 2017 | Angry Angel | Jamie Travis | Television film |
| 2018 | Ideal Home | Andrew Fleming | Composed with Martin Simpson |
| 2018 | Haunting on Fraternity Row | Brant Sersen | — |
| 2019 | The Fanatic | Fred Durst | — |
| 2019 | The Fan Connection | Mary Wall | — |
| 2019 | The Turkey Bowl | Greg Coolidge | — |

#### 2020s

| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
| 2020 | Dinner in America | Adam Rehmeier | — |
| 2020 | The Bay of Silence | Paula van der Oest | — |

### Television series

| Year | Title | Notes |
| 2004 | The Drive | — |
| 2005 | Home Blitz | — |
| 2005–2014 | How I Met Your Mother | — |
| 2006 | Trick My Truck | — |
| 2006 | Shorty McShorts' Shorts | Episode: "My Mom Married a Yeti" |
| 2007 | Trick My Trucker | — |
| 2007–2011 | Greek | — |
| 2008 | Fear Itself | Episode: "Community" |
| 2008 | Ski Patrol | 2 episodes |
| 2008 | Ski Patrol | 2 episodes |
| 2009–2010 | Accidentally on Purpose | — |
| 2010 | Sons of Tucson | — |
| 2010–2011 | Backwash | — |
| 2011 | Mad Love | — |
| 2011 | Pretty Tough | — |
| 2011–2012 | How to Be a Gentleman | — |
| 2011–2015 | Web Therapy | — |
| 2011–2016 | Switched at Birth | — |
| 2012 | The Booth at the End | — |
| 2012–2013 | Go On | — |
| 2012–2014 | Men at Work | — |
| 2013 | The Goodwin Games | — |
| 2013 | We Are Men | — |
| 2014 | Cristela | — |
| 2014–2015 | Red Band Society | — |
| 2016 | The Great Indoors | — |
| 2017–2018 | Trial & Error | — |
| 2018 | Break a Hip | — |
| 2018 | American Woman | Composed with Michael Suby |

### Video game

| Year | Title | Notes |
| 2019 | Far Cry New Dawn | Composed with Tyler Bates |

## Awards and nominations

* Golden Satellite Award (2004) for best original score (Napoleon Dynamite)
* Grammy Nomination (2006) for best compilation soundtrack album for motion picture, television or other visual media (Napoleon Dynamite)