Composer

LAURA KARPMAN

MODERATED BY

SANA AMANAT (Executive Producer)

Screening Link available upon Registration

YouTube Live Stream Q&A 

Friday, May 19, 6:30

Ms. Marvel introduces Kamala Khan, a Muslim American teenager growing up in Jersey City. An avid gamer, Kamala is a Super Hero megafan with an oversized imagination—particularly when it comes to Captain Marvel. But Kamala feels like she doesn’t fit in—that is, until she gets her own superpowers. 

TV-MA | 60mins

Laura Karpman is a five-time Emmy-winning composer who creates powerful, imaginative scores that push the boundaries of storytelling. Her award-winning music, spanning film, television, theater, interactive media, and live performance, reflects an audaciously creative, prodigious, fresh spirit. Karpman collaborates with the most creative filmmakers of our time, including Misha Green, Steven Spielberg, Alex Gibney, Kasi Lemmons, Rory Kennedy, Sam Pollard, Laura Nix and Eleanor, Francis Ford, and Sophia Coppola. Her scores span the Marvel Studios’ series What If? and Ms. Marvel, the HBO hit series Lovecraft Country, 2020 Oscar-nominated Walk Run Cha-Cha, and the Discovery Channel docuseries Why We Hate, for which she recently won an Emmy Award. Others include Miss Virginia, Set It Up, Paris Can Wait, The Cotton Club Encore, Step and Black Nativity, Underground,  L.A.’s Finest, Peabody award-winning series Craft in America, and Sid and Judy. Karpman received a Critic’s Choice award for her song, “Jump”, co-written with frequent collaborators Raphael Saadiq and Taura Stinson, and sung by Cynthia Erivo. Her animated work includes Sitara. Her celebrated scores for interactive media include Guardians of Middle Earth, Everquest 2, Kung Fu Panda 2, Project Spark, Kinect Disneyland Adventures, and Untold Legends Dark Kingdom. Across concert halls, Karpman is well known for her Grammy award-winning album, ASK YOUR MAMA, a multimedia opera based on the iconic cycle of poems by Langston Hughes. For this Carnegie Hall commission, Karpman collaborated with The Roots, soprano Jessye Norman, performer De’Adre Aziza, and jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon. The album’s Grammy-winning recording would use vocalist Janai Brugger who would later perform a new original piece by Karpman called “Tulsa 1921: To Catch a Fire” from Lovecraft Country. Other notable works include “All American”, commissioned and performed by The Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl; “Brass Ceiling”, commissioned and recorded by The U.S. Army Band, and “And Still We Dream”, commissioned by Lyric Opera of Kansas City honoring 100 years of suffrage; “Wilde Tales”, commissioned by Glimmerglass Festival; “Balls”, an opera chronicling Billie Jean King’s 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match with words by NYTimes writer Gail Collins; and a pandemic opera for Opera Theatre of St. Louis with words by Taura Stinson. Karpman’s upcoming projects include The Marvels, a Marvel Studios feature film directed by Nia DaCosta. 

A fierce champion for inclusion in Hollywood, after founding the Alliance for Women Film Composers, Karpman became the first American woman composer inducted into the music branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences and was subsequently elected to be the first female governor of the music branch. During her short time as governor, Karpman has made indelible strides, advocating for Academy membership for dozens of underrepresented composers and songwriters, as well as spearheading the Academy Women’s Initiative. Her leadership in creating opportunity and standing up for inclusion is unparalleled. Karpman is an advisor for the Sundance Film Institute and on the faculty of the USC Film Scoring Program and the San Francisco Conservatory. She received a doctorate from The Juilliard School where she studied with 20th-century icon Milton Babbitt.

Sana Amanat is currently an executive of production and development at Marvel Studios. Over her 12 years at the company, Amanat has worked as an editor, content creator and producer. She’s worked on story and character development for much of her career, beginning with comic books and then moving to animation, games and live-action. Her credits include comic book titles like Captain Marvel, Miles Morales, and Hawkeye, and streaming series like Marvel Rising and Marvel’s Hero Project. Amanat is most known for co-creating Muslim-American female Super Hero Kamala Khan — the new Ms. Marvel—which gained worldwide media attention and sparked excitement and dialogue about identity and the Muslim-American narrative. She’s championed representation in storytelling, striving to cultivate new voices within the entertainment industry. She was a part of Marie Claire’s New Guard of America’s 50 most influential women, as well as featured in Vogue’s American Women special. She also had the distinct honor of representing Marvel at the White House and introducing President Barack Obama, who called Sana a “real-life superhero.” Sana currently serves as a mentor on the Pillars Foundation Pillars Artist Fellowship for rising Muslim filmmakers. 

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