Daniel Pemberton (born 3 November 1977) is an English composer and songwriter. Primarily working in film, television, and video games, he is best known for composing the scores for the films Project Hail Mary and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse as well as its sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, the latter of which earned him a number of award nominations, including at the Golden Globes and the Critics' Choice Awards. He has received recognition for his work in films such as Steve Jobs, Motherless Brooklyn, The Trial of the Chicago 7, Being the Ricardos, The Rescue, Enola Holmes and its sequel Enola Holmes 2 (the latter of which also featured a cameo from Pemberton, portraying an orchestra conducter), as well as the first two entries in the LittleBigPlanet series of games and The Bad Guys film franchise (2022–present). For The Trial of the Chicago 7, Pemberton was nominated for the Ivor Novello Award for Best Original Film Score as well as an Academy Award for Best Original Song alongside Celeste for the song "Hear My Voice".
Early life
Pemberton grew up in East Molesey and attended Hampton School. At the age of 12, he completed work experience for the video game magazine Zero. Following the launch of Game Zone, at age 13 Pemberton ran PG Tips, the cheats and tips section for the magazine. He subsequently bought a keyboard and a tape player with his earnings.
Career
In 1994, at the age of 16, Pemberton recorded his debut album, Bedroom, on a multitrack cassette recorder, which caught the attention of ambient musician Pete Namlook and was released on the latter's Fax label as part of its sub-label series. This album impressed TV director Paul Wilmshurst who asked 17-year-old Pemberton to score a TV documentary he was working on. Following this, he became a very in-demand composer for British television eventually segueing into feature film with his debut score of The Awakening from director Nick Murphy.
In 2013, Pemberton completed his breakthrough score of director Ridley Scott's film The Counselor, which was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London.
In 2021, he was named "Film Composer of the Year" by the World Soundtrack Awards and International Film Music Critics Association.
Pemberton was originally named the "Discovery of the Year" in 2014 at the World Soundtrack Awards and nominated as "Film Composer of the Year" in 2016, 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Pemberton has been nominated for an Academy Award, won an Emmy Award and been nominated four times for a Golden Globe award and three times for a BAFTA Award. In 2021 he was nominated for the Academy Award For Best Original Song and Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for the song "Hear My Voice" from the film The Trial of the Chicago 7 which was performed and co-written with Celeste. Pemberton and Celeste performed the song during the 2021 Oscars Ceremony from the roof of the newly opened Academy Museum in Hollywood. A new arrangement of the song was also used as a central part of the Opening Ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games featuring a 1,000-piece choir and guitar solos from Black Sabbath founder Tony Iommi.
In 2016 his score for Steve Jobs was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. In 2017 he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for the song Gold from the film of the same name which he co-wrote with Iggy Pop, Danger Mouse and the director Stephen Gaghan. In 2019 his score for Motherless Brooklyn was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. He won an Emmy for his work on the acclaimed Paralympic documentary Rising Phoenix creating a score and song working alongside numerous musicians and artists with disabilities.
Pemberton's other notable works include the Ridley Scott-directed The Counselor (2013) and All the Money in the World (2017); the Danny Boyle-directed Steve Jobs (2015) and Yesterday (2019); the Guy Ritchie-directed The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015) and King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017); the Aaron Sorkin-directed Molly's Game (2017), The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), and Being the Ricardos (2021); Cuban Fury (2014); the French film Mal De Pierres (2016); the score to the American 2018 animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, as well as the score to its 2023 sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse; Ocean's 8 (2018); Enola Holmes (2020); and The Rescue (2021), for which Pemberton won a Critics' Choice Award for Best Score.
Earlier work includes The Awakening (2011); the live-action short Ghost Recon: Alpha (2012), directed by Francois Alaux and Herve De Crecy and edited by Pietro Scalia; Blood (2012); and In Fear and the television film Complicit (both 2013). Pemberton also scored director Gareth Edwards' breakthrough sci-fi short film Factory Farmed.
Pemberton has composed title tunes and incidental music for several television series including The Game, Prey, Ambassadors, Peep Show, Desperate Romantics, Space Dive, Occupation, Prisoners' Wives, Black Mirror, My Mad Fat Diary, Suburban Shootout, Hell's Kitchen, Great British Menu, Hiroshima, Bad Lads' Army, That'll Teach 'Em, George Orwell: A Life in Pictures, The Yellow House, Monster Moves, Dirk Gently, Napoleon and the first series of the 2010 revival of Upstairs Downstairs. He has composed music for video games such as LittleBigPlanet, Kinect Adventures, LittleBigPlanet 2, The Movies and TrackMania Turbo. Using the alias The Daniel Pemberton TV Orchestra, some of his television themes were released on the album TVPOPMUZIK in 2007, while his video game work—primarily that from LittleBigPlanet—was released on the album LittleBIGMusic.
For the 2020 Paralympics documentary film Rising Phoenix as well as working with disabled musicians on the score Pemberton collaborated with disabled rappers Toni Hickman, Georgetragic and Keith Jones to create the end credits song "Rising Phoenix". which was used in the closing ceremonies of both the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Pemberton has co-written songs such as "Jokes on You", the title track performed by Charlotte Lawrence from the film Birds of Prey; "Good Tonight" performed by Anthony Ramos and "Brand New Day" performed by the Heavy from the animated DreamWorks feature film The Bad Guys; and the title theme "Come With Me" performed by Yola from the second Netflix series of Green Eggs And Ham. He co-wrote and produced the end titles song "Time" from the movie Amsterdam with Drake and performed by Giveon which was shortlisted for the 2023 Oscars.
In 2022 Pemberton co-wrote and produced the title song "Strange Game" with Mick Jagger for the Apple TV series Slow Horses.
On July 26, 2025 during the San Diego Comic-Con Project Hail Mary directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller announced Daniel Pemberton as the music composer and producer. However a later interview with Soundsphere Magazine revealed that he had been contracted to compose the film's soundtrack in 2024.
