Laura Karpman

Laura Anne Karpman is an American composer whose work has included music for film, television, video games, theater, and the concert hall. She has won five Emmy Awards for her work, as well as an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score. Karpman was trained at the Juilliard School, where she played jazz by day and performed in bars at night.

Early life and education Karpman was born in Los Angeles and grew up singing opera and jazz. Her mother, a painter and sculptor, wanted her to grow up to be a composer and surrounded Karpman with music even before she was born. Karpman began her first compositions at the age of 7.

She worked with John Harbison at the Tanglewood Music Center, and attended Aspen Music School and the Ecole des Arts Americaines. At the University of Michigan, she graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Music degree studying with William Bolcom and Leslie Bassett. She received both her Doctorate and Master's Degree in Music Composition at the Juilliard School, where her principal teacher was Milton Babbitt. At Juilliard, Karpman also received mentorship from Nadia Boulanger.

Career Compositions by Karpman have been commissioned by Tonya Pinkins, Los Angeles Opera, American Composers Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, the Juilliard Choral Union, Pacific Serenades, and percussionist Evelyn Glennie. They have been performed internationally. Karpman's theater catalog includes three musicals for Los Angeles's "A Noise Within" theater company, as well as underscores for dozens of classic plays. Among her media music credits are Steven Spielberg's Emmy-winning, 20-hour TV miniseries, Taken; and PBS's series The Living Edens (for which she received nine Emmy nominations). She has scored numerous films, television programs and video games (including music for supplemental Halo 3 materials and her award-winning score for EverQuest II).

She has held a residency at Sony Online Entertainment. premiered at Carnegie Hall on March 16, 2009, with performances by Jessye Norman, Cassandra Wilson, The Roots, and the Orchestra of St. Luke's conducted by George Manahan. With Langston Hughes's epic poem for a libretto, Karpman also took passages from Louis Armstrong, Big Maybelle, Pigmeat Markham and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, integrated with projected images by Rico Gatson and additional archival video, as well as Hughes's own poetry. Ask Your Mama was released by Avie Records in July 2016. Later, Karpman created "The 110 Project", an opera work commissioned by the L.A. Opera as a homage to the city's first freeway, I-110, as seen through four characters from 1940-2010, the lifespan of the freeway. The organization provides visibility and advocacy for women composers. In 2016, Karpman became the first woman elected to the music branch of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board of Governors.

Karpman composed the score for the Marvel Studios animated anthology series What If...? in 2021, the streaming series Ms. Marvel in 2022 and the score for the superhero film The Marvels in 2023. She composed the score for the 2023 film American Fiction, for which she received her first Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score.

In 2026, Karpman composed the score for Give Me the Ball!, a documentary about the life and legacy of Billie Jean King.

Personal life

Karpman is married to composer Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum, a fellow Milton Babbitt student. They have one son and live in Playa del Rey, California, in a duplex with an ocean view and a built-in studio.

Karpman is known for a signature look: she wears two pairs of glasses, one pair on her face, and the other on her head. 2026 East of Eden Netflix 7 episodes

Video games

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards 2024 nomination, "Best Original Score" for American Fiction 2023 win, "Best Original Score in a Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film" for The Marvels 2020 win, "Outstanding Music Composition for a Documentary Series or Special (Original Dramatic Score)" for Why We Hate: Tools & Tactics

Society of Composers & Lyricists Awards 2023 nomination, "Outstanding Original Score for a Studio Film" for American Fiction