Biography
Oscar-nominated and five-time Emmy-winning composer Laura Karpman crafts powerful, imaginative scores that redefine storytelling. Her daring, radiant compositions encompass film, television, theater, interactive media, and live performance, embodying a boldly creative and prolific spirit. Karpman collaborates with some of today’s most acclaimed filmmakers, including Eleanor Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola, Sofia Coppola, Cord Jefferson, Nia DaCosta, Alex Gibney, Misha Green, Rory Kennedy, Kasi Lemmons, Laura Nix, Sam Pollard, and Steven Spielberg.
In 2023, Karpman reached a career peak with six film and TV projects, including American Fiction (Amazon MGM), starring Jeffrey Wright and Sterling K. Brown, written, directed, and produced by Cord Jefferson. The film earned five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, and Karpman received her first Oscar nomination for original score. Other 2023 projects include The Marvels (Disney), Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed (Max), What If? (Disney+), Ms. Marvel (Disney+), and 61st Street (The CW). Looking ahead to 2024, she will work on season three of What If?, two upcoming video game projects, and a musical adaptation of Dorothy Arzner's MGM film Dance Girl Dance. Her concert music highlights include the world premiere of BALLS, an opera about Billie Jean King’s legendary 1973 "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match with a libretto by New York Times writer Gail Collins, and a commissioned piece for the Juilliard School. Karpman also proudly had her theme from The Marvels performed at the BBC Proms closing night.
Her diverse scores include HBO’s acclaimed Lovecraft Country, the Oscar-nominated Walk Run Cha-Cha, and the docuseries Why We Hate. Recent credits also feature Miss Virginia, Set It Up, Paris Can Wait, The Cotton Club Encore, Step, Black Nativity, Underground, LA's Finest, and the Peabody Award-winning Craft in America. Karpman earned two additional Emmy nominations for Ms. Marvel and won an HMMA for The Marvels. For American Fiction, she has received Academy Award, SCL, NAACP Image Award, and HMMA nominations, along with inclusion on the 2024 BAFTA Longlist.
Her accolades include a 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award from She Rocks and a Critics' Choice Award for "Jump," a song from Step co-written with frequent collaborators Raphael Saadiq and Taura Stinson, performed by Cynthia Erivo. Her animated work features Sitara, directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and executive produced by Darla Anderson and Gloria Steinem, as well as her Annie-nominated score for Monkey's Tale. Karpman’s celebrated interactive media and video game scores include Guardians of Middle Earth, Everquest 2, Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom, Kung Fu Panda 2, Project Spark, and Kinect Disneyland Adventures.
In concert halls, Karpman is renowned for her Grammy-winning album Ask Your Mama, a multimedia opera based on Langston Hughes’ iconic poetry cycle. This Carnegie Hall commission saw collaboration with The Roots, soprano Jessye Norman, performer De’Andre Aziza, and jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon. Other significant works include All American, commissioned and performed by The Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl; Brass Ceiling, recorded by the U.S. Army Band; And Still We Dream, commissioned by Lyric Opera of Kansas City for the centennial of suffrage; Wilde Tales, commissioned by Glimmerglass Festival; and a pandemic opera for Opera Theatre of St. Louis with a libretto by Taura Stinson and Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum.
A passionate advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion in Hollywood, Karpman founded the Alliance for Women Film Composers and became the first female Governor of the Music Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Over two consecutive three-year terms, she enacted significant reforms, facilitating the inclusion of numerous underrepresented artists, co-founding the Academy Women’s Initiative, co-chairing the LGBTQ+ Affinity Group, contributing to the creation of the Code of Conduct, and revising bylaws to ensure more inclusive and representative language. Her leadership in fostering opportunity and championing inclusion is unmatched.
Karpman has served as an advisor for the Sundance Film Institute and taught in USC’s Film Scoring Program. She holds a doctorate from The Juilliard School, where she studied under 20th-century luminary Milton Babbitt.
She resides and works in Los Angeles with her wife, composer Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum, their son, and two dogs.
