Jeff Russo

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Jeff Russo

| image = Jeffrussolivepic.jpg

| caption =

| alias =

| origin = United States

| genre = Rock, acoustic rock

| years_active = 1993–present

| associated_acts = Tonic, Low Stars, Wendy & Lisa

| website = {{url|jeffrusso.com}}

| occupation = Composer, songwriter, guitarist, vocalist, music producer

}}

Jeff Russo (born August 31) is an American composer, songwriter, guitarist, vocalist and music producer, and one of the two founding members of the rock band Tonic. He is also a founding member of the Americana band Low Stars.

Russo is also known for his work as a composer on various films and television series, notably Snowfall, Fargo, Legion, and Counterpart, as well as the Star Trek series Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and For All Mankind. He also scored the miniseries The Night Of and the acclaimed video game What Remains of Edith Finch. For his work on Fargo, he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited Series, Movie, or Special in 2017.

Biography

Russo began his music career as a rock musician, co-founding the band Tonic. In 2006 he was invited (by his friends, Wendy & Lisa) to assist in the studio while they worked on multiple film and TV projects, and he realized how much he enjoyed the process.

He currently scores two Peabody Award nominated shows: CBS’s Star Trek: Discovery and FX’s Legion, starring Dan Stevens and Aubrey Plaza. He also scores on Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy starring Elliot Page, Robert Sheehan and Mary J. Blige, which is based on the popular comic book series by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba. He wrote for Noah Hawley’s feature directorial debut from Fox Searchlight, Lucy in the Sky, starring Natalie Portman and Jon Hamm, and Altered Carbon, an adaptation of Richard K. Morgan’s sci-fi novel. His film work includes scoring Mark Wahlberg’s action-thriller film Mile 22, Craig Macneill’s Lizzie, starring Chloë Sevigny and Kristen Stewart, which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, and Jon Avnet’s Three Christs, starring Richard Gere, which premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.

{{cite web|title=Jeff Russo Biography|url=http://jeffrusso.com/biography/|publisher=Jeff Russo|access-date=July 12, 2019}} His first connection with the Star Trek franchise was his contribution to Star Trek: Discovery.{{cite web|url=https://www.imaginaryworldspodcast.org/episodes/songs-in-the-key-of-sf|title=Songs in the Key of SF|author=Eric Molinsky|date=October 27, 2022|publisher=Imaginary Worlds Ep. 210|access-date=October 27, 2022}}

Russo and his wife, musician Nina Gordon of Veruca Salt, have two children.

Albums

=Tonic=

class="wikitable"

!align'"center"|Year

!align="center"|Album

align="center"|1996

|align="left"|Lemon Parade

align="center" rowspan=2|1999

|align="left"|Live and Enhanced

align="left"|Sugar

align="center"|2002

|align="left"|Head on Straight

align="center"|2009

|align="left"|A Casual Affair: The Best of Tonic

align="center"|2010

|align="left"|Tonic

align="center"|2016

|align="left"|Lemon Parade Revisited

=Guest appearance=

class="wikitable"

!align'"center"|Year

!align="center"|Album

align="center"|2016

|align="left"|TAMA GIRARD "When I Think of You" (Single)''

=Low Stars=

class="wikitable"

!align'"center"|Year

!align="center"|Album

align="center" rowspan=2|2007

|align="left"|Calling All Friends EP

align="left"|Low Stars

=Solo=

class="wikitable"

!align'"center"|Year

!align="center"|Album

align="center"|2007-2008

|align="left"|Make Me Feel Good About Me (unreleased)

=Soundtracks=

==Film==

class="wikitable"
Year ! Title ! Director(s) ! Notes
2004 \| Ghost Game \| Joe Knee \|
2010 \| Lesson Plan \|Philip Neel David H. Jeffery \|
rowspan="2"\| 2012 \|About Cherry \|Stephen Elliott \|
Watercolor Postcards \|Rajeev Dassani \|
rowspan="2"\| 2013 \|Free Ride \|Shana Betz \|
Bad Behaviour \|Nicholas Brandt Lisa Hamil \|
2014 \|The Surface \|Gil Cates Jr. \|
rowspan="3"\| 2017 \|Hondros \| Greg Campbell \| Documentary film
Three Christs \|Jon Avnet \|
Submission \|Richard Levine \|
rowspan="2"\| 2018 \|Lizzie \|Craig William Macneill \|
Mile 22 \|Peter Berg \|
2019 \|Lucy in the Sky \|Noah Hawley \|
2020 \|Lorelei \| Sabrina Doyle \|
2022 \|American Dreamer \| Paul Dektor \|
rowspan="2"\| 2023 \| What You Wish For \| Nicholas Tomnay \| Co-composed with Tracie Turnbull
Canary \| Danny O'Malley Alex Rivest \| Documentary film Co-composed with Paul Doucette
2024 \| Rob Peace \| Chiwetel Ejiofor \|
2025 \|The Last Rodeo \|Jon Avnet \|

class="wikitable"

Year

! Title

! Director(s)

! Notes

2004

| Ghost Game

| Joe Knee

2010

| Lesson Plan

|Philip Neel
David H. Jeffery

rowspan="2"| 2012

|About Cherry

|Stephen Elliott

Watercolor Postcards

|Rajeev Dassani

rowspan="2"| 2013

|Free Ride

|Shana Betz

Bad Behaviour

|Nicholas Brandt
Lisa Hamil

2014

|The Surface

|Gil Cates Jr.

rowspan="3"| 2017

|Hondros

Three Christs

Submission

rowspan="2"| 2018

|Lizzie

|Craig William Macneill

Mile 22

|Peter Berg

2019

|Lucy in the Sky

|Noah Hawley

2020

|Lorelei

| Sabrina Doyle

2022

|American Dreamer

| Paul Dektor

rowspan="2"| 2023

| What You Wish For

| Nicholas Tomnay

| Co-composed with Tracie Turnbull

Canary

| Danny O'Malley
Alex Rivest

| Documentary film
Co-composed with Paul Doucette

2024

| Rob Peace

| Chiwetel Ejiofor

2025

|The Last Rodeo

|Jon Avnet

==Television==

class="wikitable"

!width="50"|Year

!width="100"|Series

!width="500"|Notes

2009

|align="left"|The Unusuals

2010

|align="left"|My Generation

2011-2013

|align="left"|Necessary Roughness

|Scored 16 episodes

2013-2014

|align="left"|Hostages

|Composed with Ben Decter

2014-present

|align="left"|Fargo

|{{plainlist|

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited Series, Movie, or Special for "Aporia"
Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited Series, Movie, or Special for "Loplop"
Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited Series, Movie, or Special for "The Crocodile's Dilemma"

}}

2014-2020

|align="left"|Power

rowspan=3|2015

|align="left"|Tut

|Miniseries

align="left"|Manhattan

align="left"|The Returned

|With Zoë Keating

rowspan=2|2016

|align="left"|American Gothic

align="left"|The Night Of

|Miniseries

2016-2021

|align="left"|Lucifer

|Composed with Ben Decter
Replaced Marco Beltrami and Dennis Smith for Season 2 onwards

2016-2018

|Channel Zero

2017-2018

|align="left"|Ghosted

2017-2019

|align="left"|Legion

2017-2023

|align="left"|Snowfall

2017-2024

|align="left"|Star Trek: Discovery

|Original Star Trek Theme by Alexander Courage

2017-2019

|align="left"|Counterpart

rowspan=2|2018-2020

|align="left"|Altered Carbon

align="left"|Star Trek: Short Treks{{cite web|last1=Ulster|first1=Laurie|title=Interview: Composer Jeff Russo Talks About The Challenges Of Scoring 'Star Trek: Short Treks'|url=https://trekmovie.com/2019/01/24/interview-composer-jeff-russo-talks-about-the-challenges-of-scoring-star-trek-short-treks/|website=TrekMovie.com|access-date=October 8, 2019}}

|Original Star Trek Theme by Alexander Courage
Composed the main theme, the score for the first season and the music for "Children of Mars" from the second season. The rest of the second season continued to use Russo's title theme. Still, the scores were otherwise composed by various composers, including Kris Bowers, Nami Melumad and others, with Michael Giacchino serving as supervising composer and writing the music for the short he directed.

rowspan=2|2018

|align="left"|Waco

|Miniseries. Co-composed with Jordan Gagne

align="left"|Santa Clarita Diet

|Composed the 2nd and 3rd seasons. 1st season composed by John Debney

2019-2024

|align="left"|The Umbrella Academy

2019-present

|For All Mankind

rowspan=3|2019

|align="left"|The Act

align="left"|The InBetween

align="left"|Treadstone

|Original Bourne themes by John Powell. Co-composed with Jordan Gagne

2020-2023

|align="left"|Star Trek: Picard

|Composed the first two seasons. Arranged and conducted the title card music for the third and final one, with the score being composed by Stephen Barton and Frederik Wiedmann

rowspan=4|2020

|align="left"|Warrior Nun

align="left"|Cursed

|Composed theme

align="left"|Brave New World

|Co-composed with Jordan Gagne

align="left"|Utopia

rowspan=3|2021

|align="left"|Clarice

align="left"|Oslo

|Television film. Co-composed with Zoë Keating

align="left"|Brand New Cherry Flavor

|Miniseries

rowspan=2|2022

|align="left"|Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

|Composed the main theme

align="left"|Bosch: Legacy

rowspan=2|2023

|align="left"|Love & Death

|Miniseries

align="left"|Mrs. Davis

|Limited series

2024

|Ripley

|Limited series

rowspan=2|2025

|Star Trek: Section 31

|Television film

Alien: Earth

==Video games==

class="wikitable"
Year ! Title ! Studio ! Notes
2017 \|What Remains of Edith Finch \|Giant Sparrow \|Nominated — BAFTA Game Award for Best Music
2018 \|Madden NFL 18 \|Electronic Arts \|Story mode Longshot

class="wikitable"

Year

! Title

! Studio

! Notes

2017

|What Remains of Edith Finch

|Giant Sparrow

|Nominated — BAFTA Game Award for Best Music

2018

|Madden NFL 18

|Electronic Arts