Biography

Benjamin Messelbeck is a composer whose music is featured in award-winning films and commercials for industry-leading brands. A graduate of UCLA's Herb Alpert School of Music, Ben is known for embracing a wide variety of musical mediums - from electronic to orchestral - and his versatility as a multi-instrumentalist provides endless creative possibilities for each project.

Ben composed music for the Robert Schwartzman-directed film, The Good Half, starring Nick Jonas, Alexandra Shipp, Brittany Snow, Elisabeth Shue, Matt Walsh, and David Arquette, currently streaming on Hulu. He also wrote music for Schwartzman’s first documentary feature, Hung Up on a Dream: The Zombies Documentary, set for wide release in 2025.

In 2024, he completed the score for Snapshots of Confinement, a feature documentary streaming on PBS that tells the stories of Japanese Americans incarcerated by the U.S. government during WWII via photo albums. His most recent project, The Kids Are Not Alright, won Best Documentary Feature at the Dances With Films Festival in New York. This is the second feature film he has scored for director Mikaela Shwer. Their first collaboration, No Le Digas a Nadie (Don’t Tell Anyone) won a Peabody Award.

Ben began his career as a studio musician in Los Angeles. He wrote, recorded, and performed with numerous artists, including Rooney, Hello Stranger, Juliette Commagere, Robert Francis, and Joachim Cooder, among many others. As a recording artist, he has played on dozens of records and toured extensively throughout North America, Asia, Europe, and Australia, opening for bands like ELO, Foo Fighters, Air, Kings of Leon, Pete Yorn, Ry Cooder and Nick Lowe, Warpaint, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Eagles of Death Metal, and many more.

Ben’s introduction to film music came when he was asked to work on a song for the Wong Kar-Wai film, My Blueberry Nights, which was scored by Ry Cooder. Since then, his music has been licensed in numerous films, including Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me (Apple TV+). His television soundtrack credits include the Mob Doctor, Drop Dead Diva, and many more.

In addition to his film work, Ben has also composed music for numerous commercials and advertising media. His music is featured in several commercials shot by Zoey Grossman (starring Ariana Grande for Cloud Pink fragrance, Jennifer Aniston for PVOLVE, and Reese Witherspoon for Biossance). He also wrote the theme music for Late Night IT, an award-winning tech talk show, produced by ClickOn Studios, and has scored multiple seasons of a docuseries for the U.S. Navy called Faces of the Fleet, produced by VMLY&R and ClickOn.

Film Clients

  • Apple TV+

  • Utopia

  • The Ranch

  • PBS

  • KCPT-TV

  • P.O.V.

  • Steeplechase Films

  • Portret Films

  • LP Life Productions

  • Present Pictures

  • Hunt House Pictures

  • Bonsai Creative

  • Gravitas Ventures

  • Something Kreative

Commercial Clients

  • VMLY&R

  • ClickOn

  • America’s Navy

  • Lenovo

  • Intel

  • Special Olympics

  • Biossance

  • PlayStation

  • PVOLVE

  • BASF

  • Schick

  • Goldman Sachs

  • PacSun

  • New York Aquarium

  • Shriner’s Children’s Hospital