Justin Hurwitz

Composer Justin Hurwitz enjoyed a successful and acclaimed collaborative relationship with writer-director Damien Chazelle, which included the score for "Whiplash" (2014) and "La La Land" (2017). Born in California in 1985, Hurwitz began playing the piano at the age of six and wrote his first musical compositions by the time he was ten years of age. In 1998, he relocated to Wisconsin, where he attended Nicolet High School before enrolling in music study at Harvard University. There, he met Chazelle, an aspiring filmmaker with whom he bonded over a shared love of music. The pair roomed together and performed in a local band before setting to work on their first collaborative film effort, "Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench" (2009), a bittersweet romance about a jazz musician and an introverted young woman. Hurwitz wrote all of the music for Chazelle's film, which earned solid reviews on the festival circuit and a limited theatrical release in 2010. With a completed feature under their belt, the pair moved to Los Angeles, where Hurwitz wrote the script and songs for an episode of "The Simpsons" (Fox, 1989- ), among other television project. He then reunited with Chazelle for "Whiplash" (2014), an intense drama about an aspiring jazz musician (Miles Teller) and his complicated relationship with a talented but abusive teacher. The film was a critical success, earning three Oscars (including Best Supporting Actor for Simmons), and provided Chazelle with the funding to complete his long-gestating dream project, a musical romance-fantasy titled "La La Land." Hurwitz again wrote the score, which featured songs written by Tony nominees Benj Pasek and Andy Paul; the film and its soundtrack were both enormously successful, with Hurwitz netting Oscars for Best Original Score and Best Original Song ("City of Stars"), among numerous other awards, as well as a chart-topping soundtrack album.