Stephen Gallagher

Stephen Gallagher? The guy’s a total powerhouse in the world of film and TV music. Based out of Park Road Post Production down in Wellington, New Zealand (yeah, the place with the hobbits and all that green), he’s got his fingerprints on some of the biggest projects you can name. He’s not just a composer, either—he edits music, writes, arranges, and generally makes sure everything sounds epic. That song “Blunt the Knives” from Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”? Yep, Gallagher penned that. It’s not every day you can say your music was sung by a bunch of dwarves in Middle-earth. But he’s not stuck in just one lane. This dude’s worked the whole spectrum, from massive Hollywood productions to tiny indie docs and web series you probably watched at 2 a.m. He’s collaborated with legends—Peter Jackson, obviously, but also Brian Eno, Ed Sheeran, Nick Cave. Talk about a wild mix, right? He’s got credits as music editor on the entire Hobbit trilogy, “District 9” (man, that movie was something else), “Wolf Warrior 2,” and “West of Memphis.” On “The Lovely Bones,” he even composed extra music to blend with Brian Eno’s trippy score. Basically, if you’ve heard a killer soundtrack in a blockbuster or a cool doc lately, there’s a solid chance Gallagher had a hand in it. The guy’s a music ninja—seriously, is there anything he can’t do?