Matt Dunkley
- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Double Peabody Award winner and multiple Grammy nominated Matt Dunkley is the UK's, and indeed one of the world's, leading film orchestrators, arrangers and conductors, who has also managed to develop a successful parallel career as a talented film, TV and theatre composer.
He has worked on over 200 movies, including; Barbie, Bond: No Time To Die, Judy, Stan & Ollie,
Vice, Black Swan, Inception, Loving Vincent, Mission Impossibles: Rogue Nation and Fallout, Noah, The Great Gatsby, World War Z, Moulin Rouge, Batman: The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, Pirates of the Caribbean 3&4: On Stranger Tides /At Worlds End, Ray, Kung Fu Panda 2 &3, The Incredible Hulk, Love Actually, The Road, The Quiet American, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, The Bone Collector, Iron Man, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, World Trade Center, The Assassination of Jesse James, and video games including Gotham Knights, Halo 4, Beyond: Two Souls and Halo 5.
Matt has worked with pop/rock acts such as Billie Eilish (his co-arrangement with Hans Zimmer of her Bond song "no time to die" reached number 1 in the US Billboard Charts and won Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy awards), Dua Lipa, Lizzo, U2, Sam Smith, Massive Attack, Rufus Wainwright, Radiohead, Patti Smith, Tom Jones, Damon Alban, Elliot Smith, Badly Drawn Boy, Biffy Clyro, Dido, Jamelia, Nick Cave, The Pet Shop Boys, Editors, Catatonia, Lianne La Havas, Emeli Sandé, Celeste and Goldie as well as classical artists, Kronos Quartet, Jose Carreras, Luciano Pavarotti, Russell Watson, Vanessa Mae and Il Divo.
He has conducted all of the UK's top orchestras, including The London Philharmonic Orchestra, The London Symphony Orchestra, The BBC Symphony Orchestra, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The London Sinfonietta, The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, The Royal Scottish National Orchestra, The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, The BBC National Orchestra of Wales, The BBC Concert Orchestra, The Chamber Orchestra of London and The London Contemporary Orchestra, as well as international ensembles such as The Los Angeles Philharmonic (at The Hollywood Bowl), The Sydney Symphony Orchestra (at the Sydney Opera House), The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, The Hong Kong Philharmonic, The Brussels Philharmonic, The Czech Symphony Orchestra, The Norwegian National Ballet Orchestra, The NRK Symphony Orchestra (Oslo), The Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra, The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, The Mons Orchestra (Brussels), The North West Symphony (Seattle), The Babelsberg Film Orchestra (Berlin) and numerous top studio orchestras and choirs in London, New York and Los Angeles.
Matt has scored feature films including: The Four Musketeers, directed by Pierre Aknine and starring Emmanuelle Béart and the action thriller Storm Force (Windkracht 10), directed by Hans Herbots. He has also scored a number of network series for British Television including Spirit Warriors, I Saw You, Rescue Me, Safe as Houses and Number 13, as well as music for major adverts and production libraries. In 2018/19 Matt was asked to become musical director for the Judy Garland film biopic Judy, working very closely with the film's star Renée Zellweger, arranging and conducting all the musical numbers in the movie, and writing additional music. Renée's performance went on to win her a Golden Globe, Bafta and Oscar, and Matt was Grammy nominated for arranging and producing the accompanying soundtrack album. For his work orchestrating and conducting Nicholas Britell's score to the Barry Jenkins directed Amazon Prime series The Underground Railroad, Matt received a prestigious Peabody Award, and a 2nd Peabody Award followed for season 1 of the Star Wars spin-off TV series Andor, which Matt orchestrated, conducted and also acted in. In 2023, Matt was asked by Mark Ronson to arrange and conduct the score to Barbie, a movie that has gone on to become the highest grossing Warner Bros movie of all time, and which reaped numerous awards for it's soundtrack, including another Oscar for the Billie Eilish song "what was I made for".
For the theatre, he wrote and arranged all the music for the ground-breaking arena version of Peter Pan: The Neverending Story, that opened in Brussels December 2012, before embarking on theatre and arena tours of the UK, Europe and the Middle East, and he has also written Flanders Fields and Cinderella for theatrical productions in Belgium, Singapore and the Middle East. In the summer of 2018 Matt conducted the premiere of The Hamlet Complex for the Norwegian National Ballet in Oslo, directed by the acclaimed choreographer Alan Lucien Oyen.
In 2016 he released his critically acclaimed debut solo album, Six Cycles, on the Village Green label, which reached the Top 20 in the UK Classical Charts and featured as part of a contemporary dance work, Meta, by Charlotte Edmonds for the Royal Ballet Covent Garden in London, and as part of the score for the French movie La Fete Des Meres. Matt's second solo album, Cycles 7-16, was released in January 2018, music from which has been used in the Michael Moore documentary Fahrenheit 11/9. His 3rd solo album is being prepared for release.
In 2024 he was invited by Hans Zimmer to conduct and music direct the major orchestral tour "The World of Hans Zimmer: A New Dimension" playing sold-out arena shows all across Europe. In 2025 he was asked to be music supervisor and arranger for a new theatrical version of this show "The World of Hans Zimmer: An Immersive Symphony" which premiered in Germany to critical acclaim.
Matt studied trumpet and piano at the London College of Music, (who awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Music in 2023, and where he is now a visiting Professor), and then went on to work with world-renowned film orchestrator Christopher Palmer. This led to him working with the award-winning Scottish film composer, Craig Armstrong, for over 20 years. Since 2009 Matt has orchestrated and conducted exclusively for Golden Globe and Ivor Novello nominated composer Clint Mansell, and for the last 25 years Matt has also orchestrated and conducted for the superstar Indian composer, and Bafta, Golden Globe, double Grammy and two-time Oscar winning, A.R. Rahman. Matt became Oscar and Bafta nominated composer Nicholas Britell's exclusive orchestrator/conductor in 2017. Furthermore he regularly works with many of the most exciting names in film composition today - including Hans Zimmer, Lorne Balfe, Marco Beltrami, Henry Jackman, Ramin Djawadi, Daniel Pemberton, Rachel Portman and Joseph Trapanese.
He has conducted all of the UK's top orchestras, including The London Philharmonic Orchestra, The London Symphony Orchestra, The BBC Symphony Orchestra, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The London Sinfonietta, The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, The Royal Scottish National Orchestra, The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, The BBC National Orchestra of Wales, The BBC Concert Orchestra, The Chamber Orchestra of London and The London Contemporary Orchestra, as well as international ensembles such as The Los Angeles Philharmonic (at The Hollywood Bowl), The Sydney Symphony Orchestra (at the Sydney Opera House), The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, The Hong Kong Philharmonic, The Brussels Philharmonic, The Czech Symphony Orchestra, The Norwegian National Ballet Orchestra, The NRK Symphony Orchestra (Oslo), The Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra, The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, The Mons Orchestra (Brussels), The North West Symphony (Seattle), The Babelsberg Film Orchestra (Berlin) and numerous top studio orchestras and choirs in London, New York and Los Angeles.
Matt has scored feature films including: The Four Musketeers, directed by Pierre Aknine and starring Emmanuelle Béart and the action thriller Storm Force (Windkracht 10), directed by Hans Herbots. He has also scored a number of network series for British Television including Spirit Warriors, I Saw You, Rescue Me, Safe as Houses and Number 13, as well as music for major adverts and production libraries. In 2018/19 Matt was asked to become musical director for the Judy Garland film biopic Judy, working very closely with the film's star Renée Zellweger, arranging and conducting all the musical numbers in the movie, and writing additional music. Renée's performance went on to win her a Golden Globe, Bafta and Oscar, and Matt was Grammy nominated for arranging and producing the accompanying soundtrack album. For his work orchestrating and conducting Nicholas Britell's score to the Barry Jenkins directed Amazon Prime series The Underground Railroad, Matt received a prestigious Peabody Award, and a 2nd Peabody Award followed for season 1 of the Star Wars spin-off TV series Andor, which Matt orchestrated, conducted and also acted in. In 2023, Matt was asked by Mark Ronson to arrange and conduct the score to Barbie, a movie that has gone on to become the highest grossing Warner Bros movie of all time, and which reaped numerous awards for it's soundtrack, including another Oscar for the Billie Eilish song "what was I made for".
For the theatre, he wrote and arranged all the music for the ground-breaking arena version of Peter Pan: The Neverending Story, that opened in Brussels December 2012, before embarking on theatre and arena tours of the UK, Europe and the Middle East, and he has also written Flanders Fields and Cinderella for theatrical productions in Belgium, Singapore and the Middle East. In the summer of 2018 Matt conducted the premiere of The Hamlet Complex for the Norwegian National Ballet in Oslo, directed by the acclaimed choreographer Alan Lucien Oyen.
In 2016 he released his critically acclaimed debut solo album, Six Cycles, on the Village Green label, which reached the Top 20 in the UK Classical Charts and featured as part of a contemporary dance work, Meta, by Charlotte Edmonds for the Royal Ballet Covent Garden in London, and as part of the score for the French movie La Fete Des Meres. Matt's second solo album, Cycles 7-16, was released in January 2018, music from which has been used in the Michael Moore documentary Fahrenheit 11/9. His 3rd solo album is being prepared for release.
In 2024 he was invited by Hans Zimmer to conduct and music direct the major orchestral tour "The World of Hans Zimmer: A New Dimension" playing sold-out arena shows all across Europe. In 2025 he was asked to be music supervisor and arranger for a new theatrical version of this show "The World of Hans Zimmer: An Immersive Symphony" which premiered in Germany to critical acclaim.
Matt studied trumpet and piano at the London College of Music, (who awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Music in 2023, and where he is now a visiting Professor), and then went on to work with world-renowned film orchestrator Christopher Palmer. This led to him working with the award-winning Scottish film composer, Craig Armstrong, for over 20 years. Since 2009 Matt has orchestrated and conducted exclusively for Golden Globe and Ivor Novello nominated composer Clint Mansell, and for the last 25 years Matt has also orchestrated and conducted for the superstar Indian composer, and Bafta, Golden Globe, double Grammy and two-time Oscar winning, A.R. Rahman. Matt became Oscar and Bafta nominated composer Nicholas Britell's exclusive orchestrator/conductor in 2017. Furthermore he regularly works with many of the most exciting names in film composition today - including Hans Zimmer, Lorne Balfe, Marco Beltrami, Henry Jackman, Ramin Djawadi, Daniel Pemberton, Rachel Portman and Joseph Trapanese.
