Biography

Benjamin Messelbeck is a composer and musician whose music is featured in award-winning films, documentaries, and commercial productions distributed across major streaming platforms, including Apple TV+, Hulu, PBS, and more. A graduate of UCLA's Herb Alpert School of Music and a participant in Joy Music House's intensive Score Production Workshop, Ben is well-versed in a wide variety of musical mediums - from electronic to orchestral - and his versatility as a multi-instrumentalist provides endless creative possibilities for any production.

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 was also the composer for Schwartzman’s first documentary feature, Hung Up on a Dream: The Zombies Documentary, set for wide release in July 2025.

Another 2025 project, The Kids Are Not Alright, won Best Documentary Feature at the Dances With Films Festival in New York. This was his second collaboration with director Mikaela Shwer. Their first film, No Le Digas a Nadie (Don’t Tell Anyone), won a Peabody Award. In 2024, he completed his fourth project for PBS, a score for the feature documentary Snapshots of Confinement, which was nominated for two Los Angeles Press Club awards and a Los Angeles Emmy. The film tells the stories of Japanese Americans incarcerated by the U.S. government during WWII via photo albums.

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 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.

His 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+), and in television (Shameless, The Mob Doctor, Drop Dead Diva, and many more).

Ben’s innovative approach to film scoring, including the use of unconventional instruments, has caught the attention of creatives in other media. The New York Aquarium brought him on to create a sound installation for its Ocean Wonders: Sharks! exhibit, demonstrating his capability with immersive and spatial audio design. His work has also been featured in commercials shot by Zoey Grossman (starring Ariana Grande for Cloud Pink fragrance, Jennifer Aniston for PVOLVE, and Reese Witherspoon for Biossance), and various VMLY&R productions.

Film Clients

  • Apple TV+

  • Hulu

  • 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