Harry Escott first came to prominence in 2005 with his score to the influential psychological thriller Hard Candy, directed by David Slade. Since then, He has worked with such stellar directorial talents as Eran Creevy on cult Britflick Shifty, Paddy Considine on his heartbreaking boxing drama Journeyman, Alvaro Delgado on his multi award-winning drama Retablo and, perhaps most prominently, on Steve McQueen’s seminal sophomore film Shame.
A frequent collaborator with Michael Winterbottom (A Mighty Heart & Road To Guantanamo), last year saw their fifth collaboration on Greed, a caustic satire of the super rich, starring Steve Coogan and David Mitchell. Clio Barnard is another of Harry’s long-time collaborators: he has scored all of her films since her ground breaking debut feature The Arbor. For her film, Dark River, he teamed up with PJ Harvey to write the song An Acre of Land and his score to her latest film, Ali & Ava won the British Independent Film Award for best music.
For television, in 2021, Harry won a BAFTA for his score to Roadkill, David Hare’s political thriller starring Hugh Laurie and an RTS award for his score to Steve McQueen’s award winning series Uprising. Most recently, he scored a new series of Ian Rankin's Rebus for the BBC and Joan, starring Sophie Turner, for ITV.
Away from the screen, notable works include a collaboration with the poet Lavinia Greenlaw for her soundinstallation, Audio Obscura, which won the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry and the choral piece O Light Of Light, a reflection on Tallis’ O Nata Lux which was commissioned and performed by Ora Singers. Their album, Many Are The Wonders, which features Harry’s work, won the prestigious Opus Klassik award for best choral album in 2018. And, more recently, Sing Carols!, Harry’s collection of popular carols and Christmas songs is out now. The book is specifically designed to enable those who don’t consider themselves to be brilliant musicians to be able to get out there and have a go...go on!