Nathan Barr (born February 9, 1973; also known as Nate Barr) is an American film and television composer and musician. His television scores include True Blood,[1] The Americans, Carnival Row, and The Great. He won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music in 2020 for his work on the miniseries Hollywood.

Nathan Barr
Nathan Barr playing his bowed guitar
Born (1973-02-09) February 9, 1973 (age 51)
Other namesNate Barr
OccupationComposer

Early life

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Barr started studying music in Tokyo, Japan at the age of four. He studied cello and English literature at Skidmore College.

Career

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In 1996, Barr moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in composing film and television scores. One of his first jobs was working under the tutelage of Hans Zimmer on the films As Good as It Gets and The Prince of Egypt. After 8 months with Zimmer, Barr landed an agent and branched out on his own. Since then, Barr has scored a large array of feature films and TV series, including all episodes of HBO's series True Blood.

In 2009, Barr co-wrote and produced a song with Pete Townshend for FX's The Americans called "It Must Be Done" and in 2005 Barr hired Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top to play guitar on his score for The Dukes Of Hazzard.

Filmography

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Film

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Year Title Director Notes
1998 Hairshirt Dean Paras
Traveling Companion Paula Goldberg Short film
1999 Beyond the Mat Barry W. Blaustein Documentary film
From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter P. J. Pesce Direct-to-video film
2000 The Virginian Bill Pullman Television film
Red Dirt Tag Purvis
2001 Venus and Mars Harry Mastrogeorge
Going Greek Justin Zackham
Big Time Jerry Heiss
2002 Cabin Fever Eli Roth
2003 Briar Patch Zev Berman
2005 2001 Maniacs Tim Sullivan
The Dukes of Hazzard Jay Chandrasekhar
Hostel Eli Roth
2007 Grindhouse Thanksgiving segment
Rise: Blood Hunter Sebastian Gutierrez
Watching the Detectives Paul Soter
Hostel: Part II Eli Roth
2008 Shutter Masayuki Ochiai
Lost Boys: The Tribe P. J. Pesce
2009 The Slammin' Salmon Kevin Heffernan
2010 Open House Andrew Paquin
The Last Exorcism Daniel Stamm
2011 The Ledge Matthew Chapman
2013 The Big Wedding Justin Zackham
2015 The Boy Next Door Rob Cohen Composed with Randy Edelman featuring vocal by Lisbeth Scott
Hollywood Adventures Timothy Kendall
2017 Flatliners Niels Arden Oplev
2018 The Domestics Mike P. Nelson Additional Music by Stephen Lukach
The House with a Clock in Its Walls Eli Roth
2020 The Turning Floria Sigismondi Additional Music by Justin Caine Burnett
The Hunt Craig Zobel Additional Music By Justin Caine Burnett & Stephen Lukach
Uncle Frank Alan Ball
2021 Kate Cedric Nicolas-Troyan
2022 Prey for the Devil Daniel Stamm
2023 The Beanie Bubble Kristin Gore
Damian Kulash
Composed with Damian Kulash
2024 A Bit of Light Stephen Moyer
'Salem's Lot Gary Dauberman Composed with Lisbeth Scott

Television series

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Year Title Notes
2000 Fear
2001 Kate Brasher
2008-14 True Blood
2013-15 Hemlock Grove Composed with Todd Haberman
2013-18 The Americans
2014 Tumble Leaf
2015-17 Sneaky Pete Composed with Stephen Lukach
2016 Greenleaf
2017 The Son
2019 Fosse/Verdon
The Rook Additional Music By Justin Caine Burnett
Carnival Row
2020 The Great Includes Bird on a Wire by Simone Istwa
Hollywood
2023 The Diplomat Composed with Dimitri Smith

Awards

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Year Award Category Nominee(s) Result Ref.
Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music The Americans Nominated [5]
Hemlock Grove Nominated
Carnival Row Nominated [6]
Hollywood Won
Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited Series, Movie, or Special Nominated
A Very British Scandal: Episode 1 Nominated

References

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  1. ^ Sobol, Gianna. "Q&A with Composer Nathan Barr". Inside True Blood Blog. Archived from the original on 29 May 2014. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
  2. ^ BMI. "2010 BMI Film/TV Awards Winners". Broadcast Music Incorporated. Retrieved 2010-05-20.
  3. ^ BMI. "BMI Film & Television Awards Tout Composers of Year's Top Film, Television, & Cable Music". Broadcast Music Incorporated. Retrieved 2009-09-06.
  4. ^ BMI. "2006 BMI Film & Television Awards". BMI. Retrieved 2009-01-05.
  5. ^ "Nathan W. Barr". Emmys.com. Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved September 7, 2020.
  6. ^ "Nathan Barr". Emmys.com. Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved September 7, 2020.
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