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 has several projects set for wide release in 2024. He composed music for the Robert Schwartzman-directed film, The Good Half, starring Nick Jonas, Elizabeth Shue, and David Arquette, which premiered at Tribeca. He also contributed music to Schwartzman’s first documentary feature, Hung Up on a Dream, a film chronicling the UK band the Zombies that premiered at SXSW. In early 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.

He is currently working on the score for the second feature film from Peabody award-winning director Mikaela Shwer, which is set to premiere in 2024.

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 played on dozens of records and toured extensively throughout North America, Asia, Europe, and Australia, opening for bands like Foo Fighters, Air, Kings of Leon, Pete Yorn, Ry Cooder and Nick Lowe, Warpaint, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Eagles of Death Metal, and 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. Other co-written material appeared in Marianna Palka’s film, Good Dick, and television shows like the Mob Doctor, Drop Dead Diva, among others.

As his music began to be licensed in film and television, Ben stepped away from making records and touring to fully dedicate himself to composition and production for film, television, and media. In 2015, Ben was asked to compose the original score for No Le Digas a Nadie (Don't Tell Anyone), which would go on to win a Peabody Award. The following year, the New York Aquarium commissioned Ben to compose a sound installation for its Ocean Wonders Sharks! exhibit. 

Ben has written original scores for numerous documentaries for PBS and its affiliates, including multiple films with acclaimed director Ric Burns and his production company, Steeplechase Films. These works include VA: The Human Cost of War, Made for Each Other, and American Masters: American Ballet Theatre - A History.

In addition to his film credits, Ben has also composed music for numerous commercials and advertising media. Recently his work was featured in commercials shot by Zoey Grossman, one starring Ariana Grande (Cloud Pink fragrance) and another starring Reese Witherspoon (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

• 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

• Biossance

• PlayStation

• BASF

• Schick

• Goldman Sachs

• PacSun

• New York Aquarium

• Shriner’s Children’s Hospital