Sam Thompson is an Emmy-nominated film composer from Preston, Lancashire. Best known for his scores for the BAFTA-winning comedy drama Juice, Emmy-nominated JFK: One Day in America, and his collaborative scores with Amelia Warner including the feature dramas Mr Malcolm’s List and Young Woman And The Sea, Sam is a sensitive and collaborative composer, specialising in vocal composition, contemporary orchestral and electronic scores.

In television, Sam has grown an impressive list of credits including the comedy-drama Juice for the BBC starring BAFTA-winning Mawaan Rizwan, the TV-movie Plebs: Soldiers of Rome for ITV – a spin-off of the popular comedy series – and the Netflix smash-hit Sex Education, for which Sam wrote Additional Music cues alongside Oli Julian, having arranged and orchestrated for previous series. In documentary, Sam has scored the ground-breaking series JFK: One Day in America for National Geographic for which he is nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy, Amazon & 72 Films’ We Are Newcastle United, and tennis champion exposé Break Point for Netflix.

In feature films, Sam has scored Rise Films’ Mayor which explores the life of the charismatic mayor of Palestinian city, Ramallah – exemplifying Sam’s sensitivity to picture in a spine-tingling vocal-only score. As part of Sam’s long-term collaboration with the composer Amelia Warner, Sam has co-scored Irish drama Kathleen Is Here directed by Eva Birthistle, the Disney+ drama The Young Woman and the Sea directed by Joachim Rønning and starring Daisy Ridley, and the period-drama Mr Malcolm’s List, with the score winning at the World Soundtrack Awards 2023.

Sam has orchestrated and conducted for large ensemble recordings including the scores for David Attenborough’s Frozen Planet II, PlayStation’s Sackboy: A Big Adventure, and Guardians of the Galaxy. Sam has also provided additional orchestrations for Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ scores for Wind River, Kings and Mars. He has also written and conducted arrangements for artists such as The XX, Ellie Goulding, Lady Leshurr and Sophie Ellis Bextor, as well as conducting The Heritage Orchestra and Anna Calvi at the Burberry Fashion Show.

As a commercial artist, Sam released his debut EP As Now the Light Retreats in 2021, and was asked to contribute to Deutsche Grammophon’s ‘Summer Tales’ compilation with a reworking of Pavane in 2022. Sam is currently producing Amelia Warner’s debut album, and also working on his first solo debut album.