Nicholas Britell (born 1980) is an American composer, pianist, and film producer based in New York City.Nicholas Britell is a composer, pianist, and producer. His music has most recently been featured in director Steve McQueen's award-winning film 12 Years a Slave, for which he composed and arranged the on-camera music including the featured violin performances, spiritual songs, work songs, and dances. His critically-acclaimed songs include his reinterpretation of the spiritual Roll Jordan Roll and his song My Lord Sunshine (Sunrise),which was eligible for Oscar's best song list.His work on 12 Years a Slave was also recently recognized by Variety which named the 12 Years a Slave soundtrack among its “Top 10” of 2013. In addition to his work on 12 Years a Slave, Nicholas is also one of the producers of the recent 2014 Sundance Festival award-winning film Whiplash.As a pianist, Nicholas projects and performances have been featured in publications including New York Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and Vogue, which called him among “the most talented young artists at work.In 2012, Nicholas and Benjamin Millepied co-founded The Amoveo Company, a multimedia production company and art collective. The Amoveo Company's recent projects include producing Alejandro Iárritu's short film Naran Ja, as well as creative direction for John Legend's tour Love in the Future.
Nicholas is also the Chairman of the New York-based Decoda Ensemble, a cutting-edge classical ensemble comprised of graduates of the Carnegie Hall/Juilliard Academy program. Nicholas is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard University, where he earned a degree in Psychology with honors and is a piano performance graduate of the Juilliard School's Pre-College Division.