Rachel Portman

Composer

Born in West Sussex, Rachel began composing at the age of 14 and read music at the University of Oxford, where she became interested in writing music for student films and theatre productions. She gained experience writing music for drama in BBC and Channel 4 films, including ‘Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit,’ Mike Leigh’s, ‘Four Days In July’ and Jim Henson’s ‘Storyteller’ series.

Rachel won an Academy Award for her score for ‘Emma’ and received Academy nominations for ‘Chocolat’ and ‘The Cider House Rules’. In September 2015, Rachel received an Emmy Award for the score of HBO’s Bessie.

Rachel has just begun working on the next Lone Scherfig feature ‘Their Finest Hour and a Half’ starring Bill Nighy, Gemma Arterton and Sam Claflin.