Hildur Guðnadóttir
The composer of the score of the miniseries.
Last updated
Hildur Guðnadóttir is the Icelandic musician and composer who wrote the score for the miniseries Chernobyl. Born on 4 September 1982, she is a classically trained cellist. Her work on the series won her a Primetime Emmy Award, a BAFTA TV Award and a Grammy Award.
Last updated 2026-09-29 from the source article.
Lore & Background
Hildur was born in Reykjavík into a family of musicians. Her father is a composer and clarinet player and her mother an opera singer. She began playing the cello at five and went on to study composition and new media in Iceland and in Berlin. She has played and recorded with bands including Pan Sonic, Throbbing Gristle and Múm.
She released her first solo album, Mount A, in 2006 and her second, Without Sinking, in 2009. Her film scores include Mary Magdalene and Sicario: Day of the Soldado, and her score for Joker won the Academy Award for Best Original Score.
Reader's Guide
Her score for Chernobyl was met with critical acclaim. It won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited Series, Movie, or Special, and the first Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.
She worked on the project with Sam Slater, a composer and sound artist to whom she is married. Her score for Joker made her the first solo female composer to win the Academy Award, the BAFTA Award and the Golden Globe Award for an original score.
Did You Know?
- She performed her first professional gig at 10, alongside her mother.
- She plays the halldorophone as well as the cello.
More in Production
Elsewhere in Chernobyl: The HBO Miniseries
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Hildur Guðnadóttir (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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