Roger Neill AM '90, PhD '94 (Composer, Mozart in the Jungle, 20th Century Women)

by Kristen Strezo

Growing up, composer Roger Neill AM ’90, PhD ’94 wanted to be a rock star. But he found himself torn between his love of classical music and his love of rock. He was studying Beethoven piano sonatas, yet drawn to power pop and The Beatles.

When it came time to choose a career, this intense curiosity eventually led him to the field of film and TV scoring.

“Film music really became the obvious choice because I was able to combine my interests from all these mediums, all these different kinds of music,” he says. 

Today, Neill has worked on over two hundred feature films and decades worth of television episodes and TV commercials backed by his extensive musical knowledge.

The musical process Neill uses to draw out that humanness of his characters and the emotion are just as vital as the music he chooses.