Kevin Penkin (born 22 May 1992) is a British-born Australian composer, primarily for video games and

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

. He is best known for composing the score of the anime ''

Made in Abyss is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akihito Tsukushi. It has been serialized online in Takeshobo's digital publication ''Web Comic Gamma'' since October 2012, and has been collected in 13 volumes. The story follows ...

'', which won Best Score at the 2nd Crunchyroll Anime Awards, and the score for the ''

Tower of God is a South Korean manhwa released as a webtoon written and illustrated by S.I.U. It has been serialized in Naver Corporation's webtoon platform Naver Webtoon since June 2010, with the individual chapters collected and published by Young Com in 1 ...

'' anime adaptation, which won Best Score at the

5th Crunchyroll Anime Awards The 5th Crunchyroll Anime Awards were held on February 19, 2021, honoring excellence in anime from 2020 in anime, 2020. Crunchyroll announced the list of categories as well as the judges on December 16, 2020. They noted that the categories used i ...

Biography

Penkin was born on 22 May 1992 in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, and grew up in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, Western Australia. Penkin's interest in

video game music Video game music (VGM) is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was once limited to sounds of early sound chips, such as programmable sound generators (PSG) or FM synthesis chips. These limitations have led to t ...

started from when he first heard the "Phendrana Drifts" theme from '' Metroid Prime''; in a 2012 interview, he referred to the theme's electronic synths and

acoustic instruments Acoustic music is music that solely or primarily uses instruments that produce sound through acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means. While all music was once acoustic, the retronym "acoustic music" appeared after the ad ...

as "absolute bliss". Penkin began his career with composition credits in the 2011 short films ''Play Lunch'' and ''The Adventures of Chipman and Biscuit Boy''. In the same year, Penkin composed the soundtrack of the video game ''Jūzaengi: Engetsu Sangokuden''; this soundtrack represented Penkin's first collaboration with

Nobuo Uematsu is a Japanese composer and keyboardist best known for his contributions to the ''Final Fantasy'' video game series by Square Enix. A self-taught musician, he began playing the piano at the age of twelve, with English singer-songwriter Elton Joh ...

. Penkin has continued to collaborate with Uematsu in titles such as '' Norn9'' and '' Defender's Quest II: Mists of Ruin''. In 2013, Penkin received a Bachelor of Music in Composition and Music Technology at

Edith Cowan University Edith Cowan University (ECU) is a public research university in Western Australia. It is named in honour of the first woman to be elected to an Parliaments of the Australian states and territories, Australian parliament, Edith Cowan, and is, , t ...

's Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. In 2015, Penkin graduated from the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music (RCM) is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including pe ...

with a Master of Composition degree in Composition for Screen. His studies were supported by a grant from the Tait Memorial Trust as the inaugural Tait Scholar at the Royal College of Music. In 2016, Penkin collaborated with

Kinema Citrus is a Japanese animation studio, founded on March 3, 2008, by former Production I.G and Bones members and based in Suginami, Tokyo. Its business directors are Muneki Ogasawara, Yuichiro Matsuka and Masaki Tachibana. Notable works include ''Tok ...

on the ''Norn9'' anime and the '' Under the Dog''

original video animation , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and special episodes of a series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the ...

soundtracks. Penkin's relationship with Kinema Citrus continued through to 2017 for the soundtrack of ''

'', winning the 2017 Crunchyroll Anime Award for Best Score with it. In 2018, Penkin composed the score for the video game ''

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

''. Penkin composed the music for Kinema Citrus' anime adaptation of ''

The Rising of the Shield Hero is a Japanese light novel series written by Aneko Yusagi. Originally published as a web novel in the user-generated novel site Shōsetsuka ni Narō, the series has since been published by Media Factory with an expanded story-line f ...

'' and

NetEase NetEase, Inc. () is a Chinese Internet technology company founded by Ding Lei in June 1997. It provides online services with content, community, communications, and commerce. The company develops and operates online PC and mobile games, adverti ...

's VR game ''Nostos'' in 2019. He composed the score for the 2020 anime adaptation of the South Korean webtoon ''

''. Penkin was working with artist

Takashi Murakami is a Japanese contemporary artist. He works in fine arts (such as painting and sculpture) as well as commercial media (such as fashion, merchandise, and animation) and is known for blurring the line between High art, high and low arts. His wo ...

on the sequel to the movie ''

Jellyfish Eyes is a 2013 Japanese fantasy film directed by contemporary artist Takashi Murakami. His debut feature film, it was released in Japan on April 26, 2013. ''Jellyfish Eyes'' was released on Blu-ray in Japan on January 24, 2014; The Criterion Collectio ...

'', but the project was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In 2021, Penkin composed the score for "The Village Bride" episode in the

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

animated anthology series '' Star Wars: Visions''. Penkin lived in the United Kingdom for some time, but now lives in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Australia.

Works

Anime

Video games

Concert works

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Penkin, Kevin 1992 births Alumni of the Royal College of Music Anime composers Australian film score composers Australian male film score composers Australian video game composers Crunchyroll Anime Award winners Living people Musicians from Perth, Western Australia