Early life and education

Powell was born in London, United Kingdom. He originally trained as a violinist as a child, before studying at London's Trinity College of Music. He later ventured into jazz and rock music, playing in a soul band the Faboulistics. On leaving college, he composed music for commercials, which led to a job as an assistant to the composer Patrick Doyle on several film productions, including Much Ado About Nothing.

Career

In 1995, Powell co-founded the London-based commercial music house Independently Thinking Music, which produced scores for more than 100 British and French commercials and independent films.

Powell's first film score was for the 1990 film Stay Lucky. He moved to Los Angeles in 1997, and scored his first major film, Face/Off. This was followed by Antz in 1998, the first film produced by DreamWorks Animation which he co-scored with fellow British composer Harry Gregson-Williams. Two years later the two collaborated again to compose the score to Chicken Run, and again the following year on Shrek, which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. All subsequent Shrek films however, have been scored solely by Gregson-Williams. During 2001 he also scored Evolution, I Am Sam, Just Visiting, and Rat Race.

In 2002 Powell was hired to score The Bourne Identity, after Carter Burwell left the project, and has gone on to score all of director Doug Liman's subsequent films. He also returned to score the other two films in the series; The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, which were both directed by British director Paul Greengrass.

Following the Bourne films, Powell collaborated with Liman again to score the 2005 film Mr. & Mrs. Smith. That year, he also scored Robots.

In 2006, he scored Greengrass' United 93. He also composed music for Ice Age: The Meltdown, following David Newman, who scored the first Ice Age film, as well as X-Men: The Last Stand, and Happy Feet, for which he won a Film & TV Music Award for Best Score for an Animated Feature Film. The following year he scored The Bourne Ultimatum. In 2008 he collaborated with composer Hans Zimmer to score Kung Fu Panda, and also wrote music that year for Jumper, Hancock, and Bolt. In 2009 he scored the third film of Ice Age series; Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

In 2010, Powell composed the score to How to Train Your Dragon. This was his sixth score for a DreamWorks Animation film, although the first where he composed the whole score himself. It also became his first work to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score. That year, he has also scored Greengrass's Green Zone, and Knight and Day.

Discography

John Powell discography

Releases
↙Soundtracks	53

Television

Year	Title	Notes
1989-1993	Stay Lucky
1996-1997	High Incident

Film

1990s

Year	Title	Director	Studio(s)	Notes
1997	Face/Off	John Woo	Paramount Pictures
1998	With Friends Like These...	Philip Frank Messina	Miramax Films
	Antz	Eric Darnell Tim Johnson	DreamWorks Pictures DreamWorks Animation	with Harry Gregson-Williams
1999	Endurance	Leslie Woodhead Bud Greenspan	Walt Disney Pictures
	Forces of Nature	Bronwen Hughes	DreamWorks Pictures
	Chill Factor	Hugh Johnson	Warner Bros. Pictures	with Hans Zimmer

2000s

Year	Title	Director	Studio(s)	Notes
2000	The Road to El Dorado	Don Paul Bibo Bergeron	DreamWorks Pictures DreamWorks Animation	with Hans Zimmer
	Chicken Run	Peter Lord Nick Park	DreamWorks Pictures DreamWorks Animation	with Harry Gregson-Williams
2001	Just Visiting	Jean-Marie Poiré	Hollywood Pictures
	Shrek	Andrew Adamson Vicky Jenson	DreamWorks Pictures DreamWorks Animation	with Harry Gregson-Williams
	Evolution	Ivan Reitman	DreamWorks Pictures
	Rat Race	Jerry Zucker	Paramount Pictures
	I Am Sam	Jessie Nelson	New Line Cinema
2002	D-Tox	Jim Gillespie	Universal Pictures
	The Bourne Identity	Doug Liman	Universal Pictures
	Drumline	Charles Stone III	20th Century Fox
	The Adventures of Pluto Nash	Ron Underwood	Warner Bros. Pictures
	Two Weeks Notice	Marc Lawrence	Warner Bros. Pictures
2003	Stealing Sinatra	Ron Underwood	Showtime Networks	Television film
	Agent Cody Banks	Harald Zwart	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
	The Italian Job	F. Gary Gray	Paramount Pictures
	Gigli	Martin Brest	Columbia Pictures
	Paycheck	John Woo	Paramount Pictures
2004	The Bourne Supremacy	Paul Greengrass	Universal Pictures
	Mr. 3000	Charles Stone III	Touchstone Pictures
	Alfie	Charles Shyer	Paramount Pictures
2005	Be Cool	F. Gary Gray	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
	Robots	Chris Wedge	20th Century Fox Blue Sky Studios
	Mr. & Mrs. Smith	Doug Liman	20th Century Fox
2006	Ice Age: The Meltdown	Carlos Saldanha	20th Century Fox Blue Sky Studios
	United 93	Paul Greengrass	Universal Pictures
	X-Men: The Last Stand	Brett Ratner	20th Century Fox
	Happy Feet	George Miller	Warner Bros. Pictures Village Roadshow Pictures Animal Logic Kennedy Miller	with Gia Farrell
2007	The Bourne Ultimatum	Paul Greengrass	Universal Pictures
	PS, I Love You	Richard LaGravenese	Warner Bros. Pictures
2008	Jumper	Doug Liman	20th Century Fox
	Horton Hears a Who!	Jimmy Hayward Steve Martino	20th Century Fox Blue Sky Studios
	Stop-Loss	Kimberly Peirce	Paramount Pictures MTV Films
	Kung Fu Panda	John Stevenson Mark Osborne	Paramount Pictures DreamWorks Animation	with Hans Zimmer
	Hancock	Peter Berg	Columbia Pictures
	Bolt	Chris Williams Byron Howard	Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Animation Studios
2009	Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs	Carlos Saldanha	20th Century Fox Blue Sky Studios

2010s

Year	Title	Director	Studio(s)	Notes
2010	Green Zone	Paul Greengrass	Universal Pictures
	How to Train Your Dragon	Chris Sanders Dean DeBlois	Paramount Pictures DreamWorks Animation	nominated for Academy Award for Best Original Score
	Fair Game	Doug Liman	Summit Entertainment
	Knight and Day	James Mangold	20th Century Fox
2011	Mars Needs Moms	Simon Wells	Walt Disney Pictures ImageMovers Digital
	Rio	Carlos Saldanha	20th Century Fox Blue Sky Studios
	Kung Fu Panda 2	Jennifer Yuh Nelson	Paramount Pictures DreamWorks Animation	with Hans Zimmer
	Happy Feet Two	George Miller	Warner Bros. Pictures Village Roadshow Pictures Kennedy Miller Mitchell Dr. D Studios
2012	Dr. Seuss' The Lorax	Chris Renaud	Universal Pictures Illumination Entertainment
	Ice Age: Continental Drift	Steve Martino Mike Thurmeier	20th Century Fox Blue Sky Studios
2014	Rio 2	Carlos Saldanha	20th Century Fox Blue Sky Studios
	How to Train Your Dragon 2	Dean DeBlois	20th Century Fox DreamWorks Animation
2016	How to Train Your Dragon 3	Dean DeBlois	20th Century Fox DreamWorks Animation

Awards and nominations

Awards

• 1998 ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films - Face/Off
• 1999 ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films - Antz (with Harry Gregson-Williams)
• 2001 ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films - Chicken Run (with Harry Gregson-Williams)
• 2001 Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Music Score an Animated Feature Production - Shrek (with Harry Gregson-Williams)
• 2002 ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films - Shrek (with Harry Gregson-Williams)
• 2003 ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films - The Bourne Identity
• 2004 ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films - The Italian Job
• 2005 ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films - The Bourne Supremacy
• 2006 ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films - Mr. & Mrs. Smith
• 2006 ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films - Robots
• 2009 Annie Award for Best Music in an Animated Feature Production - Kung Fu Panda (with Hans Zimmer)
• 2009 Annie Award for Best Music in an Animated Television Production or Short Form - Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Furious Five (with Henry Jackman and Hans Zimmer)
• 2011 Annie Award for Best Music in an Animated Feature Production - How To Train Your Dragon
• 2011 IFMCA Award for Best Original Score for an Animated Feature - How To Train Your Dragon
• 2011 IFMCA Award for Film Score of the Year - How To Train Your Dragon

Nominations

• 1998 Saturn Award for Best Music - Face/Off
• 1999 Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Music in an Animated Feature Production - Antz (with Harry Gregson-Williams)
• 2000 Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Music in an Animated Feature Production - The Road to El Dorado (with Hans Zimmer, Elton John and Tim Rice)
• 2001 Saturn Award for Best Music - The Road to El Dorado (with Hans Zimmer)
• 2001 Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards for Best Original Score - Chicken Run (with Harry Gregson-Williams)
• 2002 BAFTA Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music - Shrek (with Harry Gregson-Williams)
• 2002 Saturn Award for Best Music - Shrek (with Harry Gregson-Williams)
• 2005 Golden Satellite Award for Best Original Score - Alfie (with David A. Stewart and Mick Jagger)
• 2007 Saturn Award for Best Music - X-Men: The Last Stand
• 2007 Annie Award for Best Music in an Animated Feature Production - Ice Age: The Meltdown
• 2007 BAFTA Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music - Happy Feet
• 2008 Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media - Happy Feet
• 2008 Satellite Award for Best Original Score - Horton Hears a Who!
• 2008 Saturn Award for Best Music - The Bourne Ultimatum
• 2009 Saturn Award for Best Music - Jumper
• 2009 Annie Award for Best Music in an Animated Feature Production - Horton Hears a Who!
• 2010 Annie Award for Music in a Feature Production - Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
• 2011 Saturn Award for Best Music - How To Train Your Dragon
• 2011 BAFTA Award for Best Original Music - How To Train Your Dragon
• 2011 Academy Award for Best Original Score - How To Train Your Dragon

[ Source: Wikipedia ]