Grant Kirkhope

Early life and education

Kirkhope was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, where his mother, Margaret Kirkhope, worked as a music hall dancer. Kirkhope's father, Alexander Kirkhope, was works manager of Redpath Brown steel works and was an avid music fan and exposed him to early influences such as Frank Sinatra and Glenn Miller. Kirkhope taught himself to play guitar at age 11 and is classically trained in the trumpet. Kirkhope was brought up in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire from the age of five, and attended King James's School. Kirkhope played in various bands after leaving the Royal Northern College of Music, including Zoot and the Roots along with the saxophonist Snake Davis. Kirkhope also spent many years as part of "the Big Bad Horns" which were part of UK rock band Little Angels. Kirkhope joined Rare in October 1995, he played for two bands called Syar and Maineeaxe where he played the guitar and already knew Robin Beanland, another Rare composer.

Career

Kirkhope is an Ivor Novello Awards and World Soundtrack Awards winning, BAFTA, ASCAP and IFMCA-nominated composer who has created the soundtrack for various video games. Kirkhope's score for Viva Piñata was nominated by BAFTA in the Original Score category in its 2007 awards.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was nominated for Best Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media by the International Film Music Critics Association and in the Cue Awards 2012 for Best Overall Score, Best Video Game Score and Grant was also nominated for Best Break Out Composer.

Kirkhope was nominated in the 2015 ASCAP Composer’s Choice Awards for his work on “Civilization: Beyond Earth” and also won the Best Original Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media 2015 from the International Film Music Critics Association for the same score. Civilization: Beyond Earth also won Best Score: Video Game at the Cue Awards 2015. He was nominated in the 2016 ASCAP Composer’s Choice Awards for his work on Civilization: Beyond Earth – Rising Tide and was also nominated for Best Original Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media 2016 from the International Film Music Critics Association for the same score. Civilization: Beyond Earth – Rising Tide was also nominated for Best Score: Video Game at the Cue Awards 2016.

He won the award for Best Score at the Silicon Beach Film Festival for the score to the feature film Shadows directed by Michael Matteo Rossi in 2020. The score to the animated short The Wrong Rock was nominated for Original Score - Short Film (animation) at the Hollywood Media in Music Awards in 2021. The score to the feature film The King's Daughter won the People's Vote Award at the World Soundtrack Awards in 2022. The score for Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope was nominated for Score - Video Game and the score for 'The King's Daughter was nominated for Score - Fantasy Film at the Hollywood Music and Media Awards in 2022.

Kirkhope won an Ivor Novello Award for his score for Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope in 2023 and was nominated for Best Video Game Score at the World Soundtrack Awards for the same score in 2023.

Kirkhope was also involved in casting the voice actors for the Viva Piñata cartoon.

Personal life

Kirkhope moved to the United States in 2008 to work on Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and became a naturalized United States citizen in March 2017. As of 2012, he and his family reside in southern California.

Work

Video games

Film

Web

Pilots

Voice acting

References

References

1. Wojnar, Zak. (2017-04-11). "From GoldenEye To Yooka-Laylee: Grant Kirkhope Reflects On His Career".
2. Chris Greening. "Game Music :: Interview with Grant Kirkhope (May 2010)". Square Enix Music Online.
3. Grant Kirkhope. (2019-10-15). "Today's the day I started at Rare in 1995".
4. "Grant Kirkhope | LinkedIn".
5. "2007 Games Original Score {{!}} BAFTA Awards".
6. (26 March 2015). "Knorr, Cohen, Curran, Kirkhope receive IFMCA Award for Civilization: Beyond Earth {{!}} IFMCA: International Film Music Critics Association".
7. "2012 Cue Award Nominees". THE CUE AWARDS.
8. "Vote for the 2015 ASCAP Composers' Choice Awards". www.ascap.com.
9. (2015-02-20). "2014 IFMCA Awards". IFMCA: International Film Music Critics Association.
10. "THE CUE AWARDS".
11. "Interview with Grant Kirkhope". rare-extreme.com.
12. "Donkey Kong 64 Video Game Music Compositions". Grant Kirkhope.
13. "Grant Kirkhope. Video Game Composer, Banjo Kazooie Video Games Music Compositions". Grantkirkhope.com.
14. "Perfect Dark Dual CD Soundtrack".
15. admin. (March 2020). "Yooka-Laylee and Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair Soundtracks Released". [[Playtonic Games]].
16. Acosta, J.. "A Timeless Conclusion With the Man Behind A Hat in Time's Amazing Score". Talk Amongst Yourselves.
17. "NEW GAME: Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair". Playtonic Games.
18. (11 June 2019). "Surprise!!!! Banjo-Kazooie are coming to Super #SmashBrosUltimate, and yes I wrote the music in the reveal and it's…".
19. "Interstellar Space: Genesis Soundtrack". Praxis Games.
20. (29 June 2022). "Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope's Score Combines the Powers of a Rockstar Trio of Composers".
21. Sheehan, Gavin. (November 23, 2023). "New Retro Combat Racing Title Star Racer Announced". [[Bleeding Cool]].
22. Ignacchitti, Ivanir. (29 August 2025). "Yooka-Replaylee Brings Back the Collectathon Platformer in October".
23. Milligan, Mercedes. (January 23, 2026). "Trailer: Glitch Prod. Announces ‘Gameoverse’ Animated Series Project".
24. "Grant Kirkhope (visual voices guide)".
25. Whitaker, Jed. (2017-03-22). "Review: Macbat 64". [[Destructoid]].