Mark Kilian

Born and raised in South Africa, Mark moved to the USA to pursue a career in film scoring in 1994. His academic life in his native country (master's degree in composition) and active performing career (as a pianist playing with artists like Darius Brubeck, Shirley Bassey, Airto Moreira and Ladysmith Black Mambazo) prepared him for his enrollment in the University of Southern California (USC)'s Film Scoring programme. Upon completion he was hired by film composer Christopher Young as an assistant and then joined Machine Head in Venice, California, where he wrote music for countless TV commercials for companies like Apple, Budweiser, American Express and Toyota.

Mark’s first feature film, 'Lovergirl', was scored in 1997. Since then he has written scores for a wide variety of films including 'Traitor', 'Rendition', 'Before the Rains' and most notably 'Tsotsi', which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006. In 2010 'The Ward' saw him working with legendary horror director John Carpenter. His other recent films include 'La Mission', 'Legacy', 'Repentance' and 'The Least Among You'. In 2014, he wrote scores for the Martin Scorsese-produced gangster drama 'Revenge of the Green Dragons'. Other visual media work includes the ABC TV series 'Daybreak' and 'Jake in Progress', Fox’s 'Kitchen Confidential', the documentary 'The Last King', the Aztec Pantheon exhibit at the Getty Museum and music for the games 'Full Spectrum Warrior' and 'The Matrix: Path of Neo'.

Mark's non-visual work includes two albums under the name The Gravy Street, two albums with electronic outfit Ape Quartet, a KCRW/Anne Litt remix of an Ozomatli track and string arrangements on a Glenn Hughes album. Mark’s deep understanding and appreciation of world music, jazz, electronica and modern classical music has formed a musical style that has been described as rhythmically sophisticated, evocative and driving, while retaining a raw emotional simplicity that draws on the creative use of everyday sound.