Paul Leonard-Morgan

Early life

Leonard-Morgan's mother was a music teacher. As a child, he learned to play the piano, violin, and recorder. He studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, graduating in 1995 with a BA in musical studies.

Career

Leonard-Morgan's first album, Filmtales, was released in 2007. Between 2006 and 2011, he wrote scores for the BBC spy drama Spooks. In 2007, he worked on the documentary J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life, providing the backing music that went with the film that showed the author working on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

In 2008, he was chosen by the U.S. Olympic Committee to compose a new U.S. Olympic Team anthem. In the same year, he also wrote the music for Neil Oliver's BBC television series A History of Scotland. His score was performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in 2009.

In 2011, Leonard-Morgan composed the soundtrack for the sci-fi thriller Limitless, and he also wrote music for the television series based on the film. In 2012, he scored the sci-fi film Dredd, for which he was shortlisted at the 2013 World Soundtrack Public Choice Award. Also in 2012, Leonard-Morgan composed the queue music for Test Track at Epcot.

Leonard-Morgan first became involved with video game soundtracks by composing material for Battlefield Hardline, which was released in March 2015. In May 2016, a trailer for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III was released, which included his composition; the game came out in 2017, with a score by Leonard-Morgan.

Leonard-Morgan cowrote the score for the 2020 video game Cyberpunk 2077. In an interview with Headliner Magazine on creating the score and soundtrack for the game, he said, "Writing dark music is relatively easy. Writing dark music like nobody else has ever written before is a little bit harder". Since 2025, he has been the composer for the CBS series Watson.

Awards and honours

• Scottish BAFTA – Best Composer or Original Sound Design, for Reflections upon the Origin of the Pineapple (2000).
• BAFTA Nomination for Fallen (2004)
• Ivor Novello Awards Nomination for Fallen (2004)
• World Soundtrack Awards Nomination – Discovery of the Year, for Limitless (2011)
• Primetime Emmy Award Nomination – Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score), for Limitless (2016)

Selected discography

Film

Television

Video games

Solo

References

References

1. Murray, Graeme. (16 March 2011). "Scot Scores With New DeNiro Movie's Music". [[Daily Star (British newspaper).
2. "Reflections Upon the Origin of the Pineapple (2000) - IMDb".
3. Melville, Jonathan. (18 January 2013). "Interview: Paul Leonard-Morgan on scoring Dredd". www.reelscotland.com.
4. (6 July 1995). "RSAMD". The Herald.
5. Sweeting, Adam. (31 January 2008). "Why British composers are calling the tune in Hollywood". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
6. (3 April 2011). ""Limitless"? I Had Three Weeks to Come Up with the Soundtrack". [[News of the World]].
7. Davidson, Vicky. (6 November 2007). "Secret City Music Star Set for Global TV Fame; Going for Gold Glasgow composer gets the chance of Olympic glory by creating the US team's anthem". [[Evening Times]].
8. Bruce, Keith. (1 December 2009). "REVIEW; Music". [[The Herald (Glasgow).
9. (30 November 2009). "Classical review: BBC SSO". The Scotsman.
10. Koehler, Robert. (14 March 2011). "Film Reviews: Limitless". [[Variety (magazine).
11. Murray, Graeme. (16 March 2011). "Scot Scores With New DeNiro Movie's Music". [[Daily Star (British newspaper).
12. Child, Ben. (3 September 2012). "No-nonsense Dredd gives fans nothing to fear". The Guardian.
13. Loxton, Rachel. (7 August 2013). "City composer up for film award". [[Evening Times]].
14. Heaton, Dan. (21 June 2018). "45. Composer Paul Leonard-Morgan on Creating the Score for Test Track".
15. (25 August 2014). "Interview: Paul Leonard-Morgan". PRS for Music.
16. Tiedemann, Garrett. (24 April 2015). "Interview: 'Battlefield: Hardline' composer Paul Leonard-Morgan". Minnesota Public Radio.
17. Mackie, Gareth. (10 May 2016). "Glasgow studio wades into battle with Warhammer trailer". The Scotsman.
18. (19 October 2016). "Live Interview with Dawn of War III Composer Paul Leonard-Morgan".
19. "Cyberpunk 2077: Inside the Score".
20. "New series. Watson 🎬🎶 Created and show-run by Craig Sweeny, who I collaborated with on my first US television soundtrack years ago, Limitless. Psyched to be teaming up with him again. Inspired by the characters from Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes mysteries.". Instagram.
21. (27 November 2000). "From the East End to top Scots award, via Tinsel Town Former soap star rewarded with Bafta for her television directorial debut". The Herald.
22. "WSA Discovery of the Year nominees announced".
23. "Paul Leonard-Morgan".