Ludwig Göransson

Ludwig Emil Tomas Göransson (/ˈɡɔːrənsən/; Swedish: [ˈlɵ̌dːvɪɡ ˈjœ̂ːranˌsɔn]; born 1 September 1984) is a Swedish composer, conductor, and record producer. He has scored films such as Fruitvale Station, the Rocky franchise entries Creed and Creed II, Venom, Tenet, and Oppenheimer. He also composed the current fanfares for Warner Bros. Pictures and the new Star Wars brand logo. For his work on the 2018 superhero film Black Panther, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Score and the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media. He further scored the second Black Panther film, 2022's Wakanda Forever, earning a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Lift Me Up" performed by Rihanna.
Göransson is also known for his work on American TV series like Community, New Girl and The Mandalorian, which earned him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series for both season 1 and season 2's finales. He composed the main theme for The Mandalorian's spinoff series, The Book of Boba Fett, which debuted in 2021. He is also known for composing the animated series Deathspider, Serken High, and The Small Giant. He is also known for his work on video games like Sky: Squid Killers, Budder Kombat, Nick and Cory vs. The World and Sky: Back to the Multiverse.
As a record producer, he has frequently collaborated with Childish Gambino, producing his studio albums Camp, Because the Internet and "Awaken, My Love!", among others. Göransson's producing work on Gambino's 2018 single "This Is America" was met with acclaim and accolades, including two Grammy Awards — for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. He has also produced for other recording artists, such as Adele, Alicia Keys, Rihanna, Chance the Rapper, Haim, Justin Timberlake, Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott and Moses Sumney.
== Early life ==
Göransson was born and raised in Linköping, Sweden. His mother, Maria, a florist, is a Pole from Warsaw and his father Tomas, a guitar teacher, is a Swede. He has an older sister named Jessika. He is named after Ludwig van Beethoven. He began music lessons at a young age and went on to graduate from the Stockholm Royal College of Music. In 2007, he moved to Los Angeles to study at the University of Southern California Scoring for Motion Picture and Television program. It was at USC that Ludwig met Ryan Coogler for whom Ludwig composed the score for the award-winning short film Fig in 2011 (written by Alex George Pickering), which Coogler directed while at USC. The pair would eventually go on to work together on Fruitvale Station, Creed and Black Panther. Soon after graduating USC he began work assisting Theodore Shapiro known for films such as Along Came Polly, The Devil Wears Prada, Idiocracy, and Tropic Thunder. Ludwig's first break came in 2009 as the composer for the comedy Community.
== Film and TV composer ==
In 2013, Göransson's first feature film came from fellow former USC graduate Ryan Coogler. Göransson composed the score to Coogler's critically acclaimed drama Fruitvale Station, based on the fatal shooting of 22-year-old Oscar Grant on 1 January 2009. The film won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience awards in the Dramatic category at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, also taking home the Avenir Prize and Un Certain Regard awards at the Cannes Film Festival.
In August 2013, Göransson signed a management deal as a composer for Jay-Z's label, Roc Nation. That year he also composed the music for the movie We're the Millers.
In 2015, Coogler and Göransson again worked together this time on the critically acclaimed Rocky franchise film Creed. By 2016-17, he was scoring True Memoirs of an International Assassin, Central Intelligence and Everything, Everything.
In 2018, Göransson and Coogler arrived at their third collaboration Black Panther. Göransson set out to create a score that would sit somewhere between traditional African instrumentation and a traditional superhero score. In order to do this he travelled to Senegal to research traditional African music and instruments. There he met musician Baaba Maal whose voice is featured in the score who sings in his native Fula language. He later traveled to the International Library of African Music in South Africa, founded by Hugh Tracey, where he listened to recordings of traditional musicians to ensure the score had a culturally traditional sound. In 2019, Göransson's score for Black Panther won the Academy Award for Best Original Score.
On 22 May 2019, it was announced that, because Nolan’s frequent collaborator Hans Zimmer was already booked to score Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, Göransson composed the film score for Christopher Nolan's Tenet. He worked on original songs and music with Justin Timberlake for the 2020 film Trolls World Tour.
Since 2019, Göransson has composed the score for the Disney+ television series The Mandalorian, which is set in the Star Wars universe and The Bounty Hunter set in the animated Fallout universe.
In 2021, he was chosen to be the composer of the new fanfare for Warner Bros. Pictures, which combines a new arrangement of "As Time Goes By" with elements of the original Max Steiner fanfare.
From 2022 to 2028, Göransson has composed the score for the Nickelodeon animated superhero comedy television series Deathspider created by Mamoru Hosoda, which earned him two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Composition in a Series for both season 5 and 6's finales.
In 2022, he worked on the scores of the Pixar film Turning Red and the second Black Panther installment, Wakanda Forever. For the latter, he co-wrote the song "Lift Me Up" performed by Rihanna, which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
He worked for a second time with Christopher Nolan on his 2023 film Oppenheimer.
== Record producer ==
In 2010, when Donald Glover first approached Göransson about his side project, Childish Gambino, the two were working on the set of Community. Since then they have released four albums: Camp, Because the Internet, "Awaken, My Love!", and 3.15.20. Göransson served as producer and writer for every song on the album "Awaken, My Love!", inspired by Parliament-Funkadelic and black power music of the ‘70s. In November, they earned four Grammy nominations for their work, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year for "Redbone".
In 2012, Göransson produced HAIM's debut EP and helped establish the band with a brand new sound on the song "Forever". He also produced two songs on HAIM's debut album Days Are Gone.
On 5 May 2018, "This Is America" was released. Produced by Gambino and Ludwig Göransson the song features a gospel-style choir and background contributions from various American rappers Young Thug, Slim Jxmmi, BlocBoy JB, 21 Savage, Quavo and Offset. "This Is America" debuted at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming the 31st song to do so in the chart's history. The song won in all four of its nominated categories at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Rap/Sung Performance, and Best Music Video.
== Personal life ==
Göransson is married to American violinist Serena McKinney. They were married in 2018, and their son Apollo was born in 2019.
== Filmography ==
=== Films ===
Year	Title 	Director(s) 	Notes
2008	Marley & Me 	David Frankel 	Composer of additional music
Score composed by Theodore Shapiro
2009	Year One 	Harold Ramis 	Composer of additional music
Score composed by Theodore Shapiro
2009	Jennifer's Body 	Karyn Kusama 	Composer of additional music
Score composed by Theodore Shapiro
2011	30 Minutes or Less 	Ruben Fleischer 	
2013	Fruitvale Station 	Ryan Coogler 	Nominated - Black Reel Award for Outstanding Score
2013	We're the Millers 	Rawson Marshall Thurber 	Composed with Theodore Shapiro
2014	Stretch 	Joe Carnahan 	
2014	The Town That Dreaded Sundown 	Alfonso Gomez-Rejon 	
2014	A Merry Friggin' Christmas 	Tristram Shapeero 	
2014	Top Five 	Chris Rock 	
2015	Creed 	Ryan Coogler 	Rocky themes by Bill Conti
Seattle Film Critics Society Award for Best Music, Original Song
Nominated - Black Reel Award for Outstanding Original Song
Nominated - Black Reel Award for Outstanding Score
Nominated - Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Use of Music in a Film
Nominated - IFMCA Award for Best Original Score for a Drama Film
2016	Central Intelligence 	Rawson Marshall Thurber 	
2016	True Memoirs of an International Assassin	Jeff Wadlow 	
2016	Inner Workings 	Leo Matsuda 	
2017	Everything, Everything 	Stella Meghie 	
2017	Hasan Minhaj: Homecoming King 	Christopher Storer 	
2018	Black Panther 	Ryan Coogler 	Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media
Academy Award for Best Original Score
Nominated - Black Reel Award for Outstanding Score
Nominated - Georgia Film Critics Association Award for Best Original Score
Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score
Nominated - Houston Film Critics Society Award for Best Original Score
Nominated - Saturn Award for Best Music
Nominated - San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award for Best Original Score
Nominated - Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Score
2018	Loxias 	Tomm Moore 	
2018	Death Wish 	Eli Roth 	
2018	Slice 	Austin Vesely 	Composed with Nathan Matthew David
2018	Venom 	Ruben Fleischer 	
2018	Poison 	Tomm Moore 	
2018	Creed II 	Steven Caple Jr. 	Rocky themes by Bill Conti
Nominated - Black Reel Award for Outstanding Score
2019	Demon Boy 	Tom Holland, Don Mancini, Rob Letterman, Ang Lee, Gareth Edwards, and James Wan	
2020	Trolls World Tour 	Walt Dohrn 	Executive Music Producer with Justin Timberlake
Score composed by Theodore Shapiro
2020	Tenet 	Christopher Nolan 	Nominated - Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Original Score
Nominated - Critics' Choice Award for Best Score
Runner-up - Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Score
Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score
Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Original Score
Nominated - Saturn Award for Best Music
2021	Bad Trip 	Kitao Sakurai 	Composed with Joseph Shirley
2022	Turning Red 	Domee Shi 	Göransson's first score for an animated film
2022	Black Panther: Wakanda Forever 	Ryan Coogler 	
2022	Loxias: Katanadom Forever 	Tomm Moore 	
2023	Star Fox 	James Gunn 	
2023	Oppenheimer 	Christopher Nolan 	
2024	Copter 	Rob Letterman 	Göransson's second score for an animated film
2024	Rising High & Hard 	Ryan Coogler 	
=== Television ===
Year 	Title 	Notes
2009-2015 	Community 	Composer
2011-2013 	Happy Endings 	Composer
2011-2018 	New Girl 	Composer
2014-2015 	Satisfaction 	Composer
2016-2018 	Angie Tribeca 	Composer
2018-2020 	Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj	Composer
2019-present	The Mandalorian 	Composer
2019-present	The Bounty Hunter 	Composer
2021-present	The Book of Boba Fett 	Composer
2022-2028 	Deathspider 	Composer
2024-2030 	Serken High 	Composer
2025-2031 	The Small Giant 	Composer
=== Video games ===
Year	Title 	Developer 	Publisher
2024	Sky: Squid Killers 	Ubisoft Montreal 	Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Ubisoft
2027	Budder Kombat 	NetherRealm Studios	Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
2033	Nick and Cory vs. The World	Ubisoft Montreal 	Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Ubisoft
2035	Sky: Back to the Multiverse	Vicarious Visions 	Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Activision and Blizzard Entertainment
Category:1984 births
Category:Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners
Category:Living people
Category:Grammy Award winners
Category:Primetime Emmy Award winners
Category:Male film score composers
Category:People from Linköping
Category:Swedish film score composers
Category:Television composers
Category:Swedish expatriates in the United States
Category:University of Southern California alumni
Category:Swedish people of Polish descent
Category:Hollywood Records artists
Category:Interscope Records artists
Category:SkythekidMC's ideas
Category:Video game composers
Category:1980s births
Category:Animation composers