Grant Kirkhope (born 10 July 1962) is a Scottish composer and voice actor for video games and film. Some of his notable works include GoldenEye 007, Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64, and Perfect Dark, among many others. He has won an Ivor Novello Award for Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope and a World Soundtrack Award for The King's Daughter as well as being nominated for various BAFTA, ASCAP, and IFMCA awards.

Early life and education

Kirkhope was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, where his mother, Margaret Kirkhope, worked as a music hall dancer. Kirkhope's father, Alexander Kirkhope, was works manager of Redpath Brown steel works and was an avid music fan and exposed him to early influences such as Frank Sinatra and Glenn Miller. Kirkhope taught himself to play guitar at age 11 and is classically trained in the trumpet. Kirkhope was brought up in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire from the age of five, and attended King James's School. Kirkhope played in various bands after leaving the Royal Northern College of Music, including Zoot and the Roots along with the saxophonist Snake Davis. Kirkhope also spent many years as part of "the Big Bad Horns" which were part of UK rock band Little Angels. Kirkhope joined Rare in October 1995, he played for two bands called Syar and Maineeaxe where he played the guitar and already knew Robin Beanland, another Rare composer.

Career

Kirkhope is an Ivor Novello Awards and World Soundtrack Awards winning, BAFTA, ASCAP and IFMCA-nominated composer who has created the soundtrack for various video games. Kirkhope's score for Viva Piñata was nominated by BAFTA in the Original Score category in its 2007 awards. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was nominated for Best Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media by the International Film Music Critics Association and in the Cue Awards 2012 for Best Overall Score, Best Video Game Score and Grant was also nominated for Best Break Out Composer. Kirkhope was nominated in the 2015 ASCAP Composer’s Choice Awards for his work on “Civilization: Beyond Earth” and also won the Best Original Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media 2015 from the International Film Music Critics Association for the same score. Civilization: Beyond Earth also won Best Score: Video Game at the Cue Awards 2015. He was nominated in the 2016 ASCAP Composer’s Choice Awards for his work on Civilization: Beyond Earth – Rising Tide and was also nominated for Best Original Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media 2016 from the International Film Music Critics Association for the same score. Civilization: Beyond Earth – Rising Tide was also nominated for Best Score: Video Game at the Cue Awards 2016. He won the award for Best Score at the Silicon Beach Film Festival for the score to the feature film Shadows directed by Michael Matteo Rossi in 2020. The score to the animated short The Wrong Rock was nominated for Original Score - Short Film (animation) at the Hollywood Media in Music Awards in 2021. The score to the feature film The King's Daughter won the People's Vote Award at the World Soundtrack Awards in 2022. The score for Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope was nominated for Score - Video Game and the score for 'The King's Daughter was nominated for Score - Fantasy Film at the Hollywood Music and Media Awards in 2022. Kirkhope won an Ivor Novello Award for his score for Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope in 2023 and was nominated for Best Video Game Score at the World Soundtrack Awards for the same score in 2023. Kirkhope was also involved in casting the voice actors for the Viva Piñata cartoon.

Personal life

Kirkhope moved to the United States in 2008 to work on Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and became a naturalized United States citizen in March 2017. As of 2012, he and his family reside in southern California.

Work

Games

Film

Voice acting