This is a list of the winning and nominated programs of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music. In the 1980s and early 1990s, the award was presented with the "possibility of one, more than one, or no award given," resulting in several years where there were nominees without a winner. In the following list, the first titles listed in gold are the winners; those not in gold are nominees, which are listed in alphabetical order. The years given are those in which the ceremonies took place: __TOC__

Winners and nominations

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

Individuals with multiple wins

;2 wins * Trevor Morris

Individuals with multiple nominations

;7 nominations * W. G. Snuffy Walden ;5 nominations *

Jeff Beal Jeff Beal (born June 20, 1963) is an American composer of music for film, television, recordings, and the concert hall. Highly regarded as a jazz instrumentalist and versatile composer, Beal creates music that often incorporates a synthesis of im ...

;4 nominations * Nathan Barr *

Sean Callery Sean Callery (born 1964) is an American musician and composer, best known for composing the music for the action/drama '' 24'' and the Marvel adaptation ''Jessica Jones''. Other projects include the 2004 James Bond video game, '' James Bond 007: ...

John Debney John Cardon Debney (born August 18, 1956) is an American composer and conductor of film, television, and video game scores. His work encompasses a variety of mediums and genres including comedy, horror, thriller, and action-adventure. He is a l ...

Mark Isham Mark Ware Isham (born September 7, 1951) is an American musician and film composer. A trumpeter and keyboardist, Isham works in a variety of genres, including jazz and electronic. He is also a film composer, having worked on numerous films and ...

Mike Post Mike Post (born Leland Michael Postil, September 29, 1944) is an American composer, best known for his TV theme music for various shows, including ''Law & Order''; '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit''; ''The A-Team''; ''NYPD Blue''; ''Renegad ...

;3 nominations *

Bruce Broughton Bruce Harold Broughton (born March 8, 1945) is an American orchestral composer of television, film, and video game scores and concert works. He has composed several highly acclaimed soundtracks over his extensive career and has contributed man ...

Mychael Danna Mychael Danna (born September 20, 1958) is a Canadian composer of film and television scores. He won both the Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Original Score for '' Life of Pi''. He has also won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition ...

Lee Holdridge Lee Elwood Holdridge (born March 3, 1944) is a Haitian-born American composer, conductor, and orchestrator. A 18-time Emmy Award nominee, he has won two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Daytime Emmy Awards, two News & Documentary Emmy Awards, and one ...

* James Newton Howard *

Bear McCreary Bear McCreary (born February 17, 1979) is an American musician and composer of film, television, and video game scores based in Los Angeles, California. His work includes the scores of the television series ''Battlestar Galactica'' (2004), ''Age ...

Thomas Newman Thomas Montgomery Newman (born October 20, 1955) is an American composer and conductor best known for his many film scores. In a career that has spanned over four decades, he has scored numerous films including '' The Player'' (1992); '' The Sh ...

;2 nominations *

Rachel Bloom Rachel Leah Bloom (born April 3, 1987) is an American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and producer. She is best known for co-creating and starring as Rebecca Bunch in The CW musical comedy-drama series ''Crazy Ex-Girlfriend'' (2015– ...

Stanley Clarke Stanley Clarke (born June 30, 1951) is an American bassist, film composer and founding member of Return to Forever, one of the first jazz fusion bands. Clarke gave the bass guitar a prominence it lacked in jazz-related music. He is the first ja ...

* Lisa Coleman *

Jeff Danna Jeff Danna is an award-winning Canadian film composer. He has composed or co-composed scores for a wide range of films and television, including '' The Boondock Saints'' (1999), '' Resident Evil: Apocalypse'' (2004), '' Silent Hill'' (2006)'', Th ...

Ramin Djawadi Ramin Djawadi (, fa, رامین جوادی; born 19 July 1974) is an Iranian and German score composer. He is known for his scores for the 2008 Marvel film ''Iron Man'' and the HBO series ''Game of Thrones'', for which he was nominated for Gramm ...

* Danny Elfman * Jay Gruska * Christopher Klatman *

Russ Landau Russell Landau is an American composer of film and television scores and themes including '' seaQuest 2032'', '' Survivor'', '' Fear Factor'', and '' Pirate Master'' for which he won an Emmy in 2008. He is an alumnus of the University of Bridgepor ...

Mark Leggett Mark Leggett is an American guitarist/composer who has composed music for hundreds of television and documentary productions in the U.S. Credits include television series My Name Is Earl, theme music for The Pretender (TV series), The Pretender (E ...

* Stewart Levin * Jeff Lippencott * Joseph LoDuca * Daniele Luppi *

Danny Lux Daniel Scott “Danny” Lux (born June 5, 1969) is an American composer who has contributed music for television and film productions. Film credits include '' Halloween: Resurrection'' and '' Stolen Summer'' (both in 2002). TV series credits inc ...

Wendy Melvoin Wendy Ann Melvoin (born January 26, 1964) is an American guitarist and singer-songwriter, best known for her work with Prince as part of his backing band The Revolution, and for her collaboration with Lisa Coleman as one half of the duo Wendy ...

* Trevor Morris * Blake Neely * Martin Phipps *

Adam Schlesinger Adam Lyons Schlesinger (October 31, 1967 – April 1, 2020) was an American musician, songwriter, composer, and record producer. He was a founding member of the bands Fountains of Wayne, Ivy, and Tinted Windows, and was a key songwriting contri ...

David Schwartz David Schwartz is an American composer, known for his scoring of the music for several television series. He composed most of the songs for ''Arrested Development'', and he returned as the series composer for the fourth season, which debuted on ...

* Michael Skloff *

Mark Snow Mark Snow (born Martin Fulterman; August 26, 1946) is an American composer for film and television. Among his most famous compositions is the theme music for science fiction television series ''The X-Files''. The theme reached no. 2 on the UK Si ...

Jonathan Tunick Jonathan Tunick (born April 19, 1938, New York City) is an American orchestrator, musical director, and composer, and one of seventeen " EGOTs" - people to have won all four major American showbusiness awards: the Tony Awards, Academy Awards, Em ...

* Mark Williams

Programs with multiple wins

;2 wins * ''

Monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

Programs with multiple nominations

;2 nominations * '' Chicago Hope'' * ''

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend ''Crazy Ex-Girlfriend'' is an American romantic musical comedy-drama television series that premiered on October 12, 2015, on The CW and ran for four seasons, ending on April 5, 2019. The series was created, written, and directed by Rachel Bloo ...

'' * ''

Great Performances ''Great Performances'' is a television anthology series dedicated to the performing arts; the banner has been used to televise theatrical performances such as plays, musicals, opera, ballet, concerts, as well as occasional documentaries. It is p ...

'' * ''

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Primetime Emmy Award For Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music Film music awards Original Main Title Theme Music