Grant Kirkhope is a Scottish-American composer and voice actor for video games and film. Some of his notable works include '' GoldenEye 007'', ''

Banjo-Kazooie ''Banjo-Kazooie'' is a series of video games developed by Rare. The games feature a male bear named Banjo and his friend, a large female red bird named Kazooie, who are both controlled by the player. Banjo originally made his debut as a play ...

'', ''

Donkey Kong 64 ''Donkey Kong 64'' is a 1999 platform game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It is the first 3D game in the '' Donkey Kong'' series. As the gorilla Donkey Kong, the player explores themed levels to collect it ...

'', and '' Perfect Dark'', among many others. He has been nominated for various BAFTA,

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...

, and IFMCA awards.

Early life and education

Kirkhope was born in

Edinburgh, Scotland Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

, where his mother worked as a music hall dancer. Kirkhope's father was an avid music fan and exposed him to early influences such as

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the " Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular entertainers of the 1940s, 1950s, and ...

and

Glenn Miller Alton Glen Miller (March 1, 1904 – December 15, 1944) was an American big band founder, owner, conductor, composer, arranger, trombone player and recording artist before and during World War II, when he was an officer in the US Army Air Forc ...

. Kirkhope taught himself to play guitar at age 11 and is classically trained in the trumpet. Kirkhope was brought up in

Knaresborough Knaresborough ( ) is a market and spa town and civil parish in the Borough of Harrogate, in North Yorkshire, England, on the River Nidd. It is east of Harrogate. History Knaresborough is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as ''Chenar ...

, North Yorkshire from the age of five, and attended King James's School. Kirkhope played in various bands after leaving the

Royal Northern College of Music The Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) is a conservatoire located in Manchester, England. It is one of four conservatoires associated with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. In addition to being a centre of music education ...

, including Zoot and the Roots along with the saxophonist Snake Davis. Kirkhope also spent many years as part of "the Big Bad Horns" which were part of UK rock band Little Angels. Kirkhope joined Rare in October 1995, he played for two bands called Syar and Maineeaxe where he played the guitar and already knew

Robin Beanland Robin Beanland is a British composer of video game music, composing music for numerous Rare titles, such as the '' Killer Instinct'' franchise, ''Conker's Bad Fur Day'' (which he also co-wrote the screenplay with Chris Seavor), and many ot ...

, another Rare composer.

Career

Kirkhope is a BAFTA,

and IFMCA-nominated composer who has created the soundtrack for various video games. Kirkhope's score for ''

Viva Piñata ''Viva Piñata'' is a video game franchise created and produced by Xbox Game Studios and Rare. The series' first game, '' Viva Piñata'' (2006), was conceived as a mobile gardening game before Rare was acquired by Microsoft. It was released o ...

'' was nominated by BAFTA in the Original Score category in its 2007 awards. '' Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning'' was nominated for Best Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media by the International Film Music Critics Association and in the Cue Awards 2012 for Best Overall Score, Best Video Game Score and Grant was also nominated for Best Break Out Composer. Kirkhope was nominated in the 2015 ASCAP Composer’s Choice Awards for his work on “Civilization: Beyond Earth” and also won the Best Original Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media 2015 from the International Film Music Critics Association for the same score. '' Civilization: Beyond Earth'' also won Best Score: Video Game at the Cue Awards 2015. He was nominated in the 2016 ASCAP Composer’s Choice Awards for his work on ''Civilization: Beyond Earth – Rising Tide'' and was also nominated for Best Original Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media 2016 from the International Film Music Critics Association for the same score. ''Civilization: Beyond Earth – Rising Tide'' was also nominated for Best Score: Video Game at the Cue Awards 2016. He won the award for Best Score at the Silicon Beach Film Festival for the score to the feature film "Shadows" directed by Michael Matteo Rossi in 2020. The score to the animated short "The Wrong Rock" was nominated for Original Score - Short Film (animation) at the Hollywood Media in Music awards in 2021. The score to the feature film "The King's Daughter" won the People's Vote Award at the World Soundtrack Awards in 2022. The score for "Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope" was nominated for Score - Video Game and the score for "The King's Daughter" was nominated for Score - Fantasy Film at the Hollywood Music and Media Awards in 2022.

Personal life

Kirkhope moved to the United States to work on ''Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning'' and became a naturalized United States citizen in March 2017. As of 2017, he and his family reside in southern California.

Work

Games

Film

Voice acting

Kirkhope was also involved in casting the voice actors for the ''

'' cartoon.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kirkhope, Grant 20th-century British composers 20th-century British male musicians 20th-century trumpeters 21st-century British composers 21st-century British male musicians 21st-century trumpeters American people of Scottish descent British expatriates in the United States British rock keyboardists British male composers British male guitarists British rock trumpeters British jazz trumpeters Freelance musicians Living people Male trumpeters Musicians from Edinburgh Rare (company) people Nintendo people Video game composers Zoot and the Roots members 1962 births