ABOUT CEIRI TORJUSSEN
Multi-award-winning composer Ceiri Torjussen’s (pronounced kay-ree) music was described by the Los Angeles Times as a “sudden bolt of creative lightning.” Welsh-born, but based in Los Angeles, his credits run the gamut of independent films, documentaries, network TV, animation, and large-budget studio films. He is also an accomplished composer of concert and experimental music. Although formally trained in classical music, he played in and arranged for various soul, jazz, funk, and disco bands and began scoring TV documentaries whilst still in high school. In addition to the main canon of western music from the middle ages to the present, his musical interests have included a special love for jazz, electronic music, and for certain non-western music, especially Indonesian Gamelan and North Indian classical music, the result of seven months teaching and traveling the Indian subcontinent in 1995. Following his travels, he gained his bachelor’s degree in composition at the University of York, UK, with First-Class Honors and his Masters at the University of Southern California where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and was a US/UK Fulbright Scholar.
Most recently he scored the Danish WW2 epic The Bombardment (aka The Shadow In My Eye) and the comedy India Sweets and Spices (both premiering theatrically in November 2021). He recently provided a chilling main title theme and underscore for the new reboot of A&E’s Cold Case Files and an equally chilling but synth-infused score to Blumhouse’s alien-invasion tale Into the Dark: Crawlers. Earlier in 2021, he scored the critically-acclaimed CNN docuseries The People v. The Klan, which tells the harrowing but uplifting story of the last lynching in America and the amazing mother who brought the KKK to justice.
In 2019 Torjussen scored the thriller Burn, starring Josh Hutcherson and Suki Waterhouse, and prior to that, the 4-part docuseries Pistorius for Amazon, about the famed Paralympic athlete and convicted murderer Oscar Pistorius. Other projects include the dark drama All Creatures Here Below, and the horror film Primal Rage (released theatrically in 2018). The psychological thriller Jack Goes Home (starring Rory Culkin and Lin Shaye) premiered at SXSW 2016 and the critically-acclaimed horror film The Canal, which features a terrifying, experimental score, premiered at Tribeca in 2014. His extensive documentary work includes such award-winning films as Mr. Calzaghe (BBC/eOne) and Becoming Bulletproof (Showtime, 2015), about disabled filmmakers making a Western. In 2013 Ceiri scored two award-winning films: Test (winner of Outfest and featured at the 2014 Berlinale), a drama set in the 1980s, features a moody, ambient electronic score; and on the other end of the stylistic spectrum, Big Ass Spider! (premiered at SXSW 2013), is a nod to the classic monster-movie scores of the 1950s and features a full orchestra with a hard-rock edge. No stranger to comedies, his music to Funky Monkey has become a cult favorite in Japan. He composed additional, heart-thumping action music for Hitman: Agent 47, Repo Men, Live Free or Die Hard and Underworld Evolution, and orchestral action-comedy music for Scary Movie II. Most recently he scored additional music to the noir thriller American Night, which just premiered at the 2021 Venice Biennale. He was nominated for a 2007 Emmy Award for his music to the animated series, Dive Olly Dive!
Torjussen has been commissioned by groups such as the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, The Vale of Glamorgan Festival and the Henry Mancini Institute. In 2016 his BBC commission Blodeuwedd, for full orchestra, was given its US premiere as part of the Hear Now Festival, Los Angeles. His work has been recorded and released commercially and performed worldwide, including the USA, UK, Germany, France and India. He is a dual US/UK citizen.