Isobel Waller-Bridge

Isobel Noeline Waller-Bridge (born 23 April 1984) is an English composer who is known for her scores for film, television, and theatre, along with her works for electronic music and contemporary classical music.

Early life and education

Born Isobel Noeline Waller-Bridge on 23 April 1984, she is the daughter of Theresa Mary Waller-Bridge (née Clerke), an employee of the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers, and Michael Cyprian Waller-Bridge, founder of the electronic trading platform Tradepoint. She has two younger siblings: Jasper and Phoebe. The family from which Waller-Bridge descends were landed gentry of Cuckfield, Sussex. On her father's side, she is a descendant of the Revd Sir Egerton Leigh, 2nd Baronet, and a distant relative of politician and author Egerton Leigh; her maternal grandfather was Sir John Edward Longueville Clerke, 12th baronet, of Hitcham, Buckinghamshire.

Waller-Bridge earned an bachelor's degree in music from Edinburgh University, and a master's degree from King's College London. She was also awarded a scholarship from the Royal Academy of Music, where she received another diploma.

Career Waller-Bridge composed the soundtrack for the BBC comedy-drama series Fleabag (2016–2019), which was written by and starred her sister, Phoebe Waller-Bridge. She also wrote the score for the feature films Vita and Virginia (2018) and Emma (2020). In 2021, she scored Netflix's Munich: The Edge of War, which was released by Milan Records/Sony Music, and The Phantom of the Open.

Waller-Bridge is also a performer, playing in venues such as the St James Theatre and Union Chapel. In 2016, her music appeared on albums with the Icelandic composers Ólafur Arnalds and Jóhann Jóhannsson. In 2020, she was commissioned by Sarah Burton to score Alexander McQueen’s Spring/Summer 2020 collection at Paris Fashion Week. In 2021, she collaborated with ballet dancer and actress Francesca Hayward to score her dance film, Siren.

For theatre, Waller-Bridge worked on Florian Zeller's The Son (West End) and The Forest (Hampstead Theatre), Woyzeck, adapted by Jack Thorne (Old Vic), Blood Wedding (Young Vic), and Knives in Hens (Donmar Warehouse).

In June 2022, it was announced that Waller-Bridge would be providing an original score for an animated short film of The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, which aired on BBC One at Christmas 2022. She produced the soundtrack to Sweetpea in 2024

Personal life

Michelle Dockery is Waller-Bridge's sister-in-law.

Works Music for Strings (2013)

Television Life (2009 documentary series, four episodes) War & Peace (2016 TV series) Fleabag (2016–2019) Black Mirror (2019, episode "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too") The Way Down (2021) Roar (2022) Sweetpea (2024) Towards Zero (2025 TV series) The Miniature Wife (2026 TV series)

Film Vita and Virginia (2018) Emma (2020) Munich – The Edge of War (2021) The Phantom of the Open (2021) I Came By (2022) The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (2022; short film) The Lesson (2023) Wicked Little Letters (2023) Magpie (2024) Mother Mother (2024)