Composer, musician, arranger, and producer Simon Franglen was born in Westminster, London, England on 26 May 1963. He is best known for producing, arranging, or playing on soundtracks with composers such as Alan Silvestri, Hans Zimmer, Thomas Newman, James Horner, Craig Armstrong, Howard Shore, and many others. He began his career as a Synclavier programmer for artists such as Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Yes, Godley and Crème, and producer Trevor Horn. He was convinced to move to the US, where he became a session musician and programmer on hundreds of recordings by artists such as Michael Jackson, Bee Gees, Madonna, Barbra Streisand, Quincy Jones, Whitney Houston, and many others. Although he was busy working in pop and R&B, his focus changed in 1990 when he collaborated with John Barry on the soundtrack to Dances with Wolves. He continued to collaborate with John Barry as well as working with many other film composers, playing on, or programming keyboards for soundtracks to films like Downtown (1990), The Bodyguard (1992), Ferngully: The Last Rainforest (1992), and Space Jam (1996). His arranging and production work includes the Grammy-winning “My Heart Will Go On” (from 1997’s Titanic) as well as Skyfall (2012), and Spectre (2015). While he had composed music in the past – including the theme to 2009’s Avatar - Simon Franglen then turned to film composition, writing scores for features such as Voyage of Time (2016), Peppermint (2018), Notre-Dame on Fire (2022), and the blockbuster Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), followed by Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025).
