Emmy Award-winning composer Geoff Zanelli is a standout in the film and television scoring industry, garnering accolades and recognition for his diverse musical voice. Zanelli has composed for directors such as Gore Verbinski and Ridley Scott; writer/directors David Koepp, Peter Hedges and David Duchovny; producers Jerry Bruckheimer, Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg; as well as actor/producers Angelina Jolie and Tom Hanks.
In 2019, Zanelli teamed with Disney, Angelina Jolie and Joachim Rønning to score “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil,” as well as two movies from prolific director Deon Taylor, “The Intruder” and “Black and Blue.”
Zanelli scored the fifth installment of Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” which debuted at #1 in the world upon release in May 2017, earning over $347 million in its first weekend. “Pirates of the Caribbean” fans have previously heard Zanelli’s original music contributions in all four of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films via his collaborative work with Zimmer.
He has a long history with Disney, which began with his breakout score for the fantasy drama “The Odd Life of Timothy Green” starring Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton. Zanelli’s organic and stirring score for the film also received critical acclaim, including a feature in Variety’s Eye on the Oscars issue. In addition, he scored Marc Forster’s “Christopher Robin” alongside composer Jon Brion.
Zanelli’s recent works includes working with two frequent director collaborators, scoring David Koepp’s “You Should Have Left” as well as Deon Taylor’s “Fatale” and “The House Next Door.” Most recently, Geoff scored “Man & Witch” directed by Michael Hines and “The Hill” starring Dennis Quaid and Colin Ford, the theme music for Pierre Morel’s Freelance and most recently, Adam Sandler’s Leo which broke the record as the most viewed animated film in the history of Netflix with 34.6 million views in 6 days.
Zanelli collaborated with Grammy-award winning Mark Ronson on the co-written score and songs to Lionsgate’s “Mortdecai,” marking his third time working with writer/director David Koepp; director Jared Hess for the comedy “Masterminds;” and Steve Martin and Edie Brickell to lend string arrangements to the Grammy-award winning album “Love Has Come For You,” and follow-up album “So Familiar,” which dominated the Bluegrass charts. He recently wrote the score and songs for “Star Citizen: Squadron 42,” the most crowd-funded game in history.
In 2006, Zanelli earned his first Emmy after scoring the original music for Steven Spielberg’s miniseries “Into The West.” With this win, Zanelli became the youngest composer ever to be awarded the ‘Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (Original Dramatic Score)’ accolade. A few years later, Spielberg once again tapped Zanelli to score HBO’s “The Pacific,” which earned him his second Emmy nomination. Other credits include: DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures’ “Disturbia,” 20th Century Fox’s “Hitman,” Lionsgate’s “Gamer,” DreamWork’s “Ghost Town,” The Weinstein Company’s “Outlander” and Columbia Pictures’ “Secret Window” (co-written with Philip Glass) among many others. Additionally, Zanelli co-wrote the song “Don’t Make Me Wait” for “Disturbia.”
Zanelli has contributed music to many feature films including: Warner Bros.’ “Justice League,” Disney’s “The Lone Ranger;” the Golden Globe-nominated scores for Warner Bros.’ “The Last Samurai” and Touchstone Pictures’ “Pearl Harbor;” Paramount Pictures’ “Rango,” MGM’s “Hannibal,” Columbia Pictures’ “Angels & Demons,” DreamWorks’ “Antz,” “Chicken Run,” “Shark Tale,” and “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa,” working alongside composers Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, John Powell, Harry Gregson-Williams and Steve Jablonsky.