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 and has worked extensively in music for advertising.

Recent credits include the Danish WW2 epic The Bombardment, and the worldwide-hit drama series Delhi Crime, S2 (both on Netflix). Most recently, he scored the dark thriller Nightwatch: Demons are Forever for acclaimed Danish auteur Ole Bornedal.

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. Torjussen's experience in orchestral composition saw the first part of his career orchestrating and conducting on studio blockbusters such as Hellboy (dir. Guillermo del Toro), I, Robot and Termintator 3 for composer Marco Beltrami.

In 2021 he scored the critically-acclaimed CNN docuseries The People v. The Klan, which tells the harrowing story of the last lynching in America and the amazing mother who brought the KKK to justice. He also scored the 4-part docuseries Pistorius for Amazon, about the famed Paralympic athlete and convicted murderer Oscar Pistorius. Documentary film credits include A Radical Life (Discovery+), Mr. Calzaghe (BBC/eOne) and Superheroes (HBO), about real-life superheroes patrolling the streets of America.

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. In 2013, Ceiri scored two award-winning films: Test (winner of Outfest and played 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 full orchestra with a hard-rock edge. 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 premier as part of the Hear Now Festival in Los Angeles. His work has been recorded and released commercially and performed worldwide, including the US, UK, Germany, France and India.

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 music at the University of York, UK, with a First-Class Honors, and his Masters in composition at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles where he was a Fulbright Scholar. He is a dual US/UK citizen.