Sheridan Tongue

Working with Sheridan was a joyous experience. I asked him to work in a genre he was unfamiliar with, and not only did he achieve the high bar I set he far exceeded it.

Caroline Hawkins - Creative Director, Oxford Scientific Films
 

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Sheridan Tongue is internationally acclaimed for his incredible soundtracks for Silent Witness, Wonders of the Universe, and in June 2023 was nominated for an EMMY for his work on the film Mavericks. He won an EMMY in 2021 for his work on The Last Artifact film from the Northwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Sheridan’s most recent success is composing the soundtrack for the Netflix hit series Amy Bradley is Missing, which reached the No. 1 spot on Netflix in both the USA and UK. His chilling yet emotional score pulls the viewer deep into the heart of this compelling real-life mystery.

Known for his distinctive musical storytelling, Sheridan works across both premium documentary and scripted drama. He recently scored the latest season of Silent Witness for BBC One, also streaming on Amazon Prime. As composer for 15 series of this award-winning show (the longest-running crime drama in British television history), Sheridan’s music continues to play a key role in shaping its legacy.

Sheridan’s expertise in scoring drama has recently extended into the realm of high-end natural history programming. His versatility as a composer was on full display in his recent collaboration with Nainita Desai, where the two created the music for the feature-length documentary Turtle Walker. Directed by Taira Malaney, Turtle Walker chronicles the remarkable life of Satish Bhaskar, a pioneering figure in India’s sea turtle conservation efforts. Turtle Walker was awarded the prestigious Grand Teton Award, along with the title of Best Conservation Film, at the 2024 Jackson Wild Media Awards.  

Sheridan also composed the soundtrack to the documentary feature Race To The Summit for Netflix and Pitch International creating a very electronic score. It tells the incredible story of Swiss free climbers Dani Arnold and Ueli Steck. He also composed the soundtrack for the BBC Studios Documentary Unit three part series The Great Rhino Robbery which was nominated for Best Series Award at the 2024 Wildscreen Panda awards.

In November 2022 Sheridan was awarded the Outstanding Contribution to Music Award at the Northern Ireland Music Prize in Belfast presented by PRS for Music.

Belfast born, Sheridan is not only one of the UK’s most successful film and TV composers, he is also an artist and songwriter through his pseudonym IN-IS. Tracks from his IN-IS albums have featured in CSI Vegas (CBS) and Another Life (Netflix). He released his second IN-IS album 2068 in 2020, which draws upon his wide range of musical experiences, from orchestral and electronic to his roots in Northern Ireland and Donegal, Ireland. Seven Days, Sheridan’s first IN-IS album was released in 2016.

In 2021, Sheridan composed the dramatic soundtrack for the new 13-part Meerkat Manor: Rise of the Dynasty for AMC+ and BBC America, bringing something unexpected to the wildlife genre with a bold new sound world, more often associated with drama than documentary.

His music has been used in Drive to Survive (Netflix), Planet Earth Live (BBC), 9/11 Inside Airforce One (Apple), The Grand Tour (Amazon) and Murder in the Heartland (Investigation Discovery) to name a few.

Sheridan strives to achieve originality throughout his music, avoiding traditional composition techniques in favour of the more unusual, often creating unique sounds with his use of unexpected instruments, such as the iconic oil drum to recreate the sound of the Belfast streets for the BBC landmark documentary series Spotlight on the Troubles: A Secret History.

A Tonmeister graduate from the University of Surrey, it was there that Sheridan explored his love of sound recording and acoustics alongside orchestration, composition, and conducting. His approach to composing is influenced by the early years of his career spent working as a producer, remixer, orchestrator, and arranger with icons such as Robert Plant, Blur, and Beverly Knight, and Erykah Badu.

Sheridan’s continued success in scoring award-winning film and TV drama and documentaries is a result of the close personal rapport he strives to establish with each director and producer. Sheridan is a true collaborator and multi-talented musician.