Cristobal Tapia de Veer

Juan Cristóbal Tapia de Veer (born October 18, 1973) is a Chilean and Canadian film and television score composer, arranger, producer and multi-instrumentalist based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is best known for his work on the American TV series The White Lotus, for which he won several Primetime Emmy Awards. He is also known for scoring British TV series Utopia, for which he won a Royal Television Society award in the best original score category in 2013, the Quebec series Série Noire, for which he won Prix Gémeaux awards in 2014 and 2016, and the UK Channel 4's National Treasure, which earned him a BAFTA in 2017. He won best original score at the Festival international du film fantastique de Gérardmer for the 2016 film The Girl with All the Gifts. He has received awards from the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada in 2013 and 2017.

Early life Tapia de Veer was born on October 18, 1973, a few weeks after the military coup in Chile. His parents initially fled to Paris, France. After the coup, his father remained in France, while his mother returned to Chile with him. Life under Pinochet's dictatorship proved difficult, and eventually they became political refugees in Quebec, Canada.

Career Tapia de Veer earned a master's degree in classical music (specializing in percussion) from the Conservatoire de musique du Québec. In 2001 he signed to Warner Music with his pop band One Ton, putting a hold on his classical career. The trio won the Canadian Dance Music Award (SOCAN) in 2003 with the electro-dance single "Supersex World". Tapia de Veer produced the album.

In 2011, his music for the Victorian four-part drama The Crimson Petal and the White (directed by Marc Munden, BBC2) was well received by critics. Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe, said: "The soundtrack ranges from gnawing electronic hums to choral ecstasy. It's all brilliantly, effectively, appropriately jarring".

He went on to compose the music for the Channel 4 conspiracy thriller Utopia (created by Dennis Kelly) for which he won a Royal Television Society Craft & Design Award for "best original music" in November 2013. Up again for an RTS Award in 2014, the music for the second series won the Music & Sound Award in 2015 in the Best Original TV Score category. His work on Utopia was nominated for Televisual Magazine's Bulldog Award for best music and subsequently released on yellow and green vinyl.

In early 2014, Tapia de Veer completed the music for the TV-show Série noire, which aired on ICI-Radio-Canada Télé. The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television awarded him two Prix Gémeaux for best Original Music and Best Musical Theme the same year and again in 2016 for the second season.

He also finished the works on BBC's Jamaica Inn, directed by Phillipa Lowthorpe. Tapia de Veer then wrote the music for the first season of AMC's / Channel 4's co-production Humans.

In 2016, he scored his first feature film, The Girl with All the Gifts, which opened the Locarno Film Festival. His music won in the Best Original Music category at the Festival international du film fantastique de Gérardmer, France, in 2017. Paramount Pictures used his opening theme, GIFTED, for the final trailer of the 2019 remake of Pet Sematary and Focus Home Interactive for their videogame Call of Cthulhu.

Tapia de Veer was unable to score the following season of Humans, because he teamed up with Marc Munden again, to work on National Treasure, Channel 4's four-part drama inspired by Operation Yewtree, the police investigation into the sexual abuse perpetrated by Jimmy Savile and allegations against other media personalities. The series won a BAFTA and a FIPA D'OR at the Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels in Biarritz, France, for Tapia de Veer's original score.

BBC America's series Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency found a dedicated fanbase in 2016, which is still waiting for a soundtrack album to be released. Due to Tapia de Veer's heavily charged schedule, he was not able to work on the second season.

In the same year Amazon Prime hired Tapia de Veer to work on two episodes of the anthology series Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams. He worked on HUMAN IS, starring Bryan Cranston as well as CRAZY DIAMOND, starring Steve Buscemi, for which he got a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award the following year.

He also scored the Season 4 episode of Netflix's series Black Mirror, entitled "Black Museum".

SOCAN awarded him its International Achievement Award in fall 2017, the first time that a composer for film and television had received the prize.

In 2018, the Canneseries festival invited Tapia de Veer to be part of the jury for its first season, alongside Michael Kenneth Williams, German actress Paula Beer, Turkish actress Melisa Sozen, French screenwriter and director Audrey Fouché, and Harlan Coben.

He then scored his second feature film, Advantages of Travelling by Train, a 2019 adaptation of Antonio Orejudo's novel of the same name, directed by Aritz Moreno and produced by Morena Films in Spain, starring Luis Tosar, Pilar Castro, and Javier Botet. The film competed in major film festivals such as Sitges, Tokyo, and Brussels Film Festival (BRFF), and was awarded "Best Comedy" at the Goya Awards in 2020. Tapia de Veer's music for the film earned him a nomination at Spain's Premios Feroz.

Releases in 2020 include the series Hunters for Amazon Prime and the drama The Third Day for HBO/ SKY.

In 2021, he scored the HBO limited series The White Lotus, for which he won two Primetime Emmy Awards (one for the main title music, the other for his work scoring the series) and a Society of Composers & Lyricists Award. He also received his second BAFTA nomination for his music for The Third Day.

The following year, he scored the supernatural horror film Smile, directed by Parker Finn. He scored the second season of The White Lotus in collaboration with Kim Neundorf, for which he won another Emmy award. Tapia de Veer won an Emmy for his work on the third season's score.

Discography Soundtrack releases Utopia (Silva Screen Records, 2013) Utopia: Season 2 (Silva Screen Records, 2014) Humans (Silva Screen Records, 2015) National Treasure (Free Run Artists, 2017) The Girl with all the Gifts (Mondo, Death Waltz Records, 2017) Black Mirror: Black Museum (Lakeshore Records, 2018) Philip K. Dick's: Electric Dreams (La La Land Records / 2018) The Third Day: Summer (Milan Records / Sony Music, 2020) Hunters: Season 1 (2020) The White Lotus (WaterTower Music, 2021) Smile (Paramount Music, 2022) The White Lotus: Season 2 (WaterTower Music, 2022) (with Kim Neundorf) Smile 2 (Paramount Music, Lakeshore Records, 2024) Babygirl (A24 Music, 2024)

Feature films Year Title Director(s) Notes 2016 The Girl with All the Gifts Colm McCarthy 2019 Advantages of Travelling by Train Aritz Moreno 2022 Smile Parker Finn 2024 Smile 2 Babygirl Halina Reijn Ponyboi Esteban Arango 2025 & Sons Pablo Trapero 2026 Nuisance Bear Gabriela Osio Vanden, Jack Weisman 2026 The Stunt Driver Michael Dowse TBA Psyche Agustina San Martin Upcoming film

Short films Year Title Director(s) Notes 2014 Eladio y la Puerta Interdimensional María Giráldez and Miguel Provencio Official English title: Eladio at the Interdimensional Gate 2017 Cla'am Nathaniel Martello-White 2025 The Tiger Spike Jonze and Halina Reijn

Documentaries Year Title Director(s) Notes 2008 Mirages d'un Eldorado Martin Frigon Official English title: Mirage of El Dorado 2025 Assembly Rashaad Newsome and Johnny Symons 2026 Nuisance Bear Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman

Television series Year Title Notes 2011 The Crimson Petal and the White Miniseries 2013–2014 Utopia 2014–2016 Série Noire 2014 Jamaica Inn Miniseries 2015 Humans Series 1 2016 National Treasure Miniseries Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency Season 1 2017 Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams Episodes: "Crazy Diamond" and "Human Is" Black Mirror Episode: "Black Museum" 2020 Hunters Season 1 The Third Day Part 1: "Summer" 2021–2025 The White Lotus Seasons 1–3Season 2 with Kim NeundorfSeason 3 with Peranya Visitchantaragoon 2026 Lord of the Flies Miniseries

Other Year Title Notes 2023 Willy's Wonderland Comic Series Fan Dub Episode 3 Motion comic based on a comic book series, serving as a prequel to the film Willy's Wonderland

Awards and nominations