Succession

Composer

NICHOLAS BRITELL

Creator & Showrunner

JESSE ARMSTRONG

MODERATED BY JON BURLINGAME (Variety)

Screening Link available upon Registration

YouTube Live Stream Q&A 

Thursday, June 16, 6:30PM (PT)

Created by Jesse Armstrong, the award-winning HBO Original series Succession is available to stream on HBO Max. Succession explores themes of power and family dynamics through the eyes of patriarch Logan Roy and his four grown children, Kendall, Siobhan, Roman, and Connor. Season three finds Logan in a perilous position, scrambling to secure familial, political, and financial alliances after he was ambushed by his rebellious son Kendall. After Kendall’s impulsive decision to expose the company’s sprawling scandal, the family is left to contemplate each of their futures. Tensions rise as a bitter corporate battle threatens to turn into a family civil war, with the Roy family navigating the looming question of who will take over in a post-Logan world. TV-MA | 60mins

Nicholas Britell is an Emmy-winning and three-time Academy Award-nominated composer, pianist, and producer who is known for his critically-acclaimed scores, including those for Adam McKay’s 2021 Don’t Look Up, Barry Jenkins’ 2018 If Beale Street Could Talk, and Jenkins’ 2017 Academy Award Best Picture winner Moonlight. Britell received Academy Award nominations for those three films as well as BAFTA and Critics’ Choice nominations for Don’t Look Up and If Beale Street Could Talk. He received Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice nominations as well as the 2016 Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Original Score (Dramatic Feature) for Moonlight. The year prior, he wrote the score for Adam McKay’s The Big Short, which marked the start of his collaboration with the Academy Award-winning writer-director-producer. In 2018, he wrote the score for McKay’s Vice, starring Christian Bale and Amy Adams. He went on to win the Film Composer of the Year at the World Soundtrack Awards in 2019. In 2021, he was awarded the Hollywood Music in Media award for Best Feature Film Score on behalf of Don’t Look Up. He also won an SCL Award for Outstanding Original Song for a Comedy. Britell’s upcoming film projects include writing the score for Jenkins’ The Lion King for Walt Disney Pictures.

For television, Britell scores HBO’s Succession, for which he won the 2019 Emmy for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music and the Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Original Score. Britell’s score and main title theme have become some of the most talked-about music for television. As the Guardian put it, “Britell composed the definitive TV Theme of the 21st Century.” He has continued his work on Succession by scoring Seasons 2 and 3; he begins Season 4 later this year. Britell’s score to Barry Jenkins’ critically acclaimed limited series The Underground Railroad was recognized in 2021 with an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Music Composition. In addition, Britell recently collaborated with Grammy-winning artist Robert Glasper on the score for McKay’s HBO drama series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.

Britell is a Steinway Artist, a Creative Associate of the Juilliard School, and an honors and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard University. 

Jesse Armstrong is an Academy Award-nominated, Emmy, and BAFTA-winning TV and film writer. In 2016 it was announced HBO had commissioned a 10-part series of his media family drama Succession. The pilot was directed by Adam McKay. In the UK he co-created, co-executive produced, and co-wrote 9 seasons of Channel 4’s BAFTA-winning comedy Peep Show. He also co-wrote the BAFTA-winning The Thick of It and the Academy Award-nominated script for the film In The Loop; the terrorism comedy Four Lions, and the British Comedy Award-winning comedy-drama Fresh Meat.

Jesse was born and educated in Oswestry, Shropshire, and attended Manchester University where he studied American Studies as an undergraduate and American History for his Masters, after which he worked as a researcher for a Member of Parliament. Working as a solo writer, Jesse wrote The Entire History of You for Black Mirror and the final episode of the first season of HBO’s Veep.

In 2016 Jonathan Cape published his novel set against the background of the Bosnian War, Love Sex, and Other Foreign Policy Goals. 

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FREE for current SCL members (click HERE to check membership status).

Attendees will be emailed a Screening Link upon Registration and a Q&A YouTube Live Stream link on Thursday, June 16, 10 minutes before Q&A start.

Attendees can ask questions on YouTube chat, and the SCL Host will pass them on to the Moderator. The SCL Member Code of Conduct applies to online Q&As.

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