9 Female Film Composers Everyone Should Know
Kathryn Edom
There’s no denying the unfortunate truth that film music, along with many parts of the film industry, is a male-dominated field. I won’t get into why, as there are many very complex reasons. Instead, I would like to share with you the stories of composers who have done their best to slowly diversify the field. […]
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There’s no denying the unfortunate truth that film music, along with many parts of the film industry, is a male-dominated field. I won’t get into why, as there are many very complex reasons. Instead, I would like to share with you the stories of composers who have done their best to slowly diversify the field. Here is a list of nine female film composers everyone should know.

1. Delia Derbyshire (1937-2001)

It was also here, in 1963, where she created the now iconic electronic realization of Ron Grainer’s theme for the new BBC television show, Doctor Who. It was considered incredibly innovative for the time and was one of the first completely electronic themes for a TV show. Unfortunately, the BBC ignored Ron Grainer’s efforts to credit Derbyshire as a co-composer of the theme. It wasn’t until the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special in 2013—twelve years after Derbyshire’s death—that she received credit for the theme. Even still, many of her other compositions from her time at the Radiophonic Workshop remain uncredited. Nevertheless, there have been other attempts to honor her. In 2016, her hometown of Coventry renamed one of its streets “Derbyshire Way” in her honor, and a plaque now hangs outside her former home there. In 2017, she was also awarded a posthumous honorary doctorate from Coventry University for her contributions to electronic music.

2. Shirley Walker (1945-2006)

Afterwards, she went on to work with Warner Brothers on many of their DC Animated projects. She wrote music for Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995), Superman: The Animated Series (1996-2000), The Flash (1990-1991), and Batman Beyond (1999-2001), the last of which earned her a Daytime Emmy Award. She also wrote music for popular TV series The Love Bug (1997), and Spawn: The Animated Series (1997), as well as the full-length animated film, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993). While much of her career was spent working in television, she did also write for film. Some of her more notable scores include Willard (2003) and the first three films in the Final Destination franchise (2000-2006). In 2014, eight years after her death, the first ASCAP Shirley Walker Award was conferred for contributions to the diversity of film and television music.

3. Angela Morley (1924-2009)

The Little Prince earned her an Oscar nomination, making her the first openly trans woman to receive one. She also earned an Oscar nomination for her work on The Slipper and the Rose which was a collaboration with the Sherman Brothers. She collaborated with many other big names during her career, including John Williams, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist André Previn, composers Lionel Newman and Miklós Rózsa, and violinist Itzhak Perlman. Not only did she compose, but she worked as a conductor and arranger as well. She also received three Primetime Emmy Awards between 1985 and 1990 for Outstanding Music Direction.

4. Wendy Carlos (b. 1939)

It was around this time that Carlos began a gradual transition, which was disrupted by the unexpected success of Switched-On Bach. She faced many struggles within the music and later film industry as she fought to live her life the way she wanted, and eventually, publicly acknowledged her transition. She later became an advocate for other trans people and continues to raise public awareness for trans issues.

Carlos’s success with Switched-On Bach also drew the attention of the film industry. Many directors were intrigued by the other-worldly sounds of the Moog, including Stanley Kubrick, who offered Carlos her first film score A Clockwork Orange (1971). Carlos later collaborated with him again for his film adaptation of Stephen King’s book The Shining (1980). While both of these scores were important in Carlos’s advancement of electronic music, she is best known for her score of Disney’s sci-fi film, Tron (1982). For this film, Carlos combined orchestral elements to her usual electronic style, performed by the London Philharmonic. The combination was revolutionary and created a sound that—at the time—was completely unique to the film. While none of her film scores earned her any accolades, her innovations in electronic music left an unquestionable mark on film music.

For more on Wendy Carlos’s score for Tron, check out David W. Collins’s in-depth analysis on his podcast, The Soundtrack Show:

5. Anne Dudley (b. 1956)

6. Rachel Portman (b. 1960)

Portman was the first woman to win the Oscar. She also earned the British Film Institute Anthony Asquith Award for her music for The Storyteller (1987) and the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie, or a Special, for Bessie (2015). And at the BMI Film and TV Awards in 2010, she was the first woman to be awarded the Richard Kirk Award for her contributions to film and TV music.

7. Lesley Barber (b. 1962)

8. Pinar Toprak (b. 1980)

In 2009, she received the International Music Critics Association Award for Best Comedy Score for her work on the film The Lightkeepers (2009). This eventually led to a chance to work with Danny Elfman on Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2017), her first major superhero project. She has since gone on to do multiple superhero projects for both Marvel and DC, including TV series Krypton (2018-2019) and Stargirl (2020 – ). But her best-known film is Marvel Studios’s Captain Marvel (2019), which made her the first female composer to score a Marvel film. Her primetime Emmy nomination for the series McMillions (2020) also made her the first Turkish composer to receive an Emmy nomination.

9. Hildur Guðnadóttir (b. 1982)

Some of her more notable film and TV projects include Journey’s End (2017), Mary Magdalene (2018), Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018), Tár (2022) and Women Talking (2022). She also won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited Series, Movie, or Special, for the limited series Chernobyl (2019) as well as a Grammy and a BAFTA. However, she is best known for her score for the 2019 film Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix. She won multiple awards for the score, including a BAFTA, Golden Globe, and the Academy Award for Best Original Score. She is only the third woman to win the Oscar, the first since the separate categories for comedy and dramatic scores were consolidated, and the first female composer to win an Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe. As far as Hildur is concerned, I think it’s safe to say we can expect many more fantastic film scores to come.

For more on female film composers, check out the Alliance for Women Film Composers and their directory of women currently working in the field.

Kathryn Edom is a composer and aspiring music librarian in her second year of IU’s MLS (Library Sciences) program. She previously attended Sacramento State University and University of Oregon where she received her BM and MM (respectively) in music composition. On top of her courses, she currently juggles three different library jobs, and in her limited spare time, enjoys reading, writing music, playing Breath of the Wild, and watching Oregon football.