Jessica Curry is an English

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

radio presenter A radio personality is a person who has an on-air position in radio broadcasting. A radio personality who hosts a radio show is also known as a radio host (North American English), radio presenter (British English) or radio jockey. Radio personali ...

and former co-head of the British

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

development studio

The Chinese Room The Chinese Room (formerly Thechineseroom) is a British video game developer based in Brighton that is best known for exploration games. The company originated as a mod team for ''Half-Life 2'', based at the University of Portsmouth in 2007, ...

. She won a

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

award in 2016 for her score for the video game '' Everybody's Gone to the Rapture'' and received an honorary doctorate from Abertay University in 2023.

Career

When Dan Pinchbeck was developing his experimental video game ''

Dear Esther ''Dear Esther'' is a 2012 adventure game developed and published by The Chinese Room. First released in 2008 as a free modification for the Source game engine, the game was entirely redeveloped for a commercial release in 2012. The commercial v ...

'' he turned to his wife Curry to write a score. Thus Curry became the co-founder of

game studio. Following the success of that game, The Chinese Room went on to develop '' Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs'' which Curry describes as her first "journey into interactivity" as her score had been "shoehorned" into ''Dear Esther''. While ''Amnesia'' was in production, The Chinese Room received an approach from

Sony Computer Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE) is an American video game and digital entertainment company that is a major subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony, Sony Group Corporation. It primarily operates the PlayStation brand of video game co ...

Santa Monica Studio Santa Monica Studio is an American video game developer of Sony Interactive Entertainment based in Los Angeles. It is best known for developing the ''God of War'' series. The studio was founded in 1999 by Allan Becker and was located in Santa ...

to develop an exclusive game for them. '' Everybody's Gone to the Rapture'', which had originally been envisioned as a PC release, subsequently became a

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

exclusive. Curry describes ''Rapture'' as "the first time I would say that I wrote a truly interactive score". In October 2015 Curry announced via her blog on The Chinese Room's website that, while she would remain a company director, she was lessening her creative involvement with the studio. She stated that her decision was based on various factors including a degenerative condition, the stress that she felt from the studio's relationship with a commercial publisher and her treatment as a woman in the game industry. In April 2016, Curry won a

at the

12th British Academy Games Awards The 12th British Academy Game Awards awarded by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, is an award ceremony that was held on 7 April 2016 at Tobacco Dock in London. The ceremony honoured achievement in video gaming in 2015 and was host ...

for her music on ''Everybody's Gone to the Rapture''. After her departure from The Chinese Room, Curry embarked on various other projects including a collaboration with poet laureate

Carol Ann Duffy Dame Carol Ann Duffy (born 23 December 1955) is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is a professor of contemporary poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Poet Laureate in May 2009, and her term expired in 2019. She wa ...

which saw poems by Duffy performed to music by Curry and others at

Durham Cathedral Durham Cathedral, formally the , is a Church of England cathedral in the city of Durham, England. The cathedral is the seat of the bishop of Durham and is the Mother Church#Cathedral, mother church of the diocese of Durham. It also contains the ...

in July 2016 as part of a centenary remembrance of the

Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme (; ), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and the French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place between 1 July and 18 Nove ...

. In October 2016 Curry's score to ''Dear Esther'' was performed live by a full orchestra at London's

Barbican Centre The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London, England, and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings a ...

to coincide with the release of the game for the PS4 and

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

consoles. In January 2017, it was announced that Curry would present ''High Score'', Classic FM's six-episode series on video game music. In October 2017 it was announced that Curry's show was renewed for another six episodes, starting 4 November. Starting October 2019, Curry presented ''Sound of Gaming'' on

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

, a weekly series on video game music. In June 2025, Curry released ''Shielding Songs,'' an album mostly made up of new versions of her favorite pieces featuring the London Voices choir.

Personal life

Curry and husband Dan Pinchbeck have been together since 2000. They are based in

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

and have one son. She is a fan of film director

Peter Greenaway Peter Greenaway, (born 5 April 1942) is a British film director, screenwriter and artist. His films are noted for the distinct influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Mannerist painting in particular. Common traits in his films a ...

and his frequent collaborator, composer

Michael Nyman Michael Laurence Nyman, Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 23 March 1944) is an English composer, pianist, libretto, librettist, musicologist, and filmmaker. He is known for numerous film soundtrack, scores (many written during his lengthy ...

Awards

BAFTA Awards

! , - ,

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

, ''

'' , Best Audio , , rowspan="3" style="text-align:center;", , - , rowspan="2",

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

, rowspan="2", '' Everybody's Gone to the Rapture'' , Best Audio , , - , Best Music ,

D.I.C.E. Awards

! , - ,

, '' Everybody's Gone to the Rapture'' , rowspan="2" , Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition , , style="text-align:center;", , - ,

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

, ''

Little Orpheus ''Little Orpheus'' is a 2020 adventure- platform game developed by The Chinese Room and published by Sumo Digital. The game was released on Apple Arcade on 12 June 2020 for iOS, macOS, and tvOS. Ports for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, ...

'' , , style="text-align:center;",

Works

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curry, Jessica 21st-century English women composers Alumni of the National Film and Television School Alumni of University College London English radio presenters English video game composers English women radio presenters Living people Musicians from Liverpool Radio presenters from Liverpool Musicians from Brighton Year of birth missing (living people)