The universe of soundtrack composers is a small one. Traditionally, it was also a male-dominated one as well. That is changing. In the past few decades, there has been a steady increase in the number of women composers. Let’s take a look at ten women composers you need to know and follow.

Doreen Carwithen

If there is a beginning to this list, it is Carwithen. Credited as the first woman composer with her score for the documentary This Modern Age. Carwithen would go on to score dozens of movies in the 1950s and 1960s, a time when virtually no women worked behind the camera in any official capacity. She was also an accomplished cello, violin, and piano player. For a bit of random trivia, Carwithen was married to composer William Alwyn, who was the great-grandfather of English actor Joe Alwyn, also known as Taylor Swift’s Ex.

Pinar Toprak

Turkish composer Toprak is a prime example of a composer who gets little attention, yet has had a massive impact. Her credits include Captain Marvel, Thursday Night Football, and Fortnite, which are all massive franchises that have made billions.

Isobel Waller-Bridge

A relative newcomer, Waller-Bridge frequently collaborates with her sister, Phoebe. Her breakout score was for the BBC/Amazon Prime show Fleabag. She went on to do scores for Jane Austen’s Emma, Munich: The Edge of War, and the wild Black Mirror episode “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too.”

Natalie Holt

Holt is a British composer who has been scoring shows for almost 17 years. However, it was her brilliant score for the Mavel blockbuster Loki that won her massive acclaim. The Loki score is one of the most creative scores to come out in the last decade. It mixes weird theremin sounds with roaring, bombastic orchestrations. She also did the score for Obi Wan Kenobi and Journey’s End.

Hildur Guðnadóttir

Icelandic composer Guðnadóttir has the distinction of the first woman to win an Acadamy Award for her 2020 score for Joker. She also scored the brilliant HBO miniseries Chernobyl. Guðnadóttir has a distinctive, atmospheric quality to her scores.

Sarah Schachner

Schacher was a collaborator with composer and mentor Brian Tyler for many years. She then started scoring video games. Her Assassin’s Creed Unity won best Original Video Game soundtrack from International Film Music Critics Association. However, it was her 2022 score for the Hulu movie Prey that caught everybody’s attention. The score is a driving, lush ensemble of classic action motifs and Native American inspired melodies. It rapidly ascended to the top of every playlist, and even helped inspire the sequel to the movie.

Debbie Wiseman

If you have watched any amount of British television, then you probably heard at least one of Wiseman’s scores. She has a massive back catalog of British TV show scores. She also did the score for Queen Elizabeth’s Jubilee Celebration as well as her funeral, in 2022.

Laura Karpman

Karpan not only has an impressive catalog of scores, she also was the first women to head the music division of the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences. Her career spans over 30 years, starting with a TV movie in 1989. She has a few big Marvel features to her name, including What If…, Ms. Marvel, and the Marvels.

Anne Dudley

Dudley started her career as a classical musician, then was a pop musician, and then did some scores in there as well. She then co-founded the group The Art of Noise which turned out some notable songs in the 1980s. She pioneered the art of sampling other sounds for use in a song. Dudley moved on to scoring shows and movies in the late 1980s and has an impressive catalog that includes Say Anything, The Crying Game, The Full Monty (for which she won an Oscar), and American History X. She also contributed to the album Electronic, which was a collaboration between New Order’s Bernard Sumner and Pet Shop Boy’s Neil Tennant.

Wendy Carlos

I chose to end this list with a composer that I consider a true trailblazer in music and art. Carlos was the first composer to use synthesized music in a score. She worked closely with inventor Robert Moog and his eponymous synthesizer in the 1960s and early 1970s to refine and develop the sound of the “synth.” Countless “New Wave” synthetize bands from the 1970s and 1980s, like my favorite New Order, owe their sound to Carlos. Her work not only revolutionized music, but she also delivered some stunning scores. The score to A Clockwork Orange is, to this day, one of the most influential and ingenious scores to ever come out of Hollywood. Her scores for The Shining and Tron are equally groundbreaking. Carlos’ filmography may be short, but her influence is massive.