Ludwig Göransson
Ludwig Emil Tomas Göransson (; ; born September 1, 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", and "Tenet". He also composed the new fanfare for Warner Bros. Pictures, as well as the fanfare for the "Star Wars" brand logo. For his work on the 2018 superhero film "Black Panther", he won the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media and the Academy Award for Best Original Score, and he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original  Score. Göransson is also known for his work on American TV series like "Community", "Happy Endings", "New Girl", "Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj", and "The Mandalorian", winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series for the both Chapter 8: Redemption in Season 1 and Chapter 16: The Rescue in Season 2. As a 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 single "This Is America" was met with acclaim and accolades. The song earned him  two Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Overall, his work with Gambino earned him six Grammy Award nominations. He has also produced for other recording artists such as Adele, Haim, Chance the Rapper, Alicia Keys, and Travis Scott. Early life. Göransson was born and raised in Linköping, Sweden. His mother, Maria, a florist, is from Warsaw, Poland and his father Tomas, a guitar teacher, is Swedish. 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 that university 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 then work together on "Fruitvale Station," "Creed" and "Black Panther". Soon after graduating USC he began work assisting Theodore Shapiro, a composer 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 came together for 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, as well as the fanfare for the franchise's brand logo. In 2021, he started scoring sessions for "The Mandalorian"'s spinoff series, "The Book of Boba Fett", which premiered on December 29, 2021. 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. He was tapped to score the of Pixar film, "Turning Red", as well as a second collaboration with Christopher Nolan, "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.