Debbie Wiseman

Debbie Wiseman composes scores for film and television while maintaining parallel roles as an educator and broadcast personality. Her work has earned multiple award nominations along with several wins, and she appears often as a guest conductor with orchestras across Britain.

Born in London on May 10, 1963, she started writing music at the age of eight. Early training took her to the Junior Department of Trinity College of Music, after which she continued with piano and composition studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. A commission for a Channel 4 documentary arrived soon after her studies ended, opening the door to a sustained career scoring both large and small screens. She also contributes regularly to BBC Radio 3 and 4.

High-profile television dramas such as Wolf Hall and Dickensian carry her music, as do documentaries including Joanna Lumley's Nile, Fry's Planet Word, and Palin's New Europe. Film credits encompass Haunted, Wilde, Lesbian Vampire Killers, and Tom's Midnight Garden. The 1997 Oscar Wilde biography starring Stephen Fry brought an Ivor Novello nomination for Best Original Film Score and repeated entries in the Classic FM Hall of Fame. Warner Classics signed her in 2011, resulting in the release of her first solo album, Piano Stories. Fry rejoined her in 2020 for a Decca recording of The Mythos Suite.

The Queen's New Year's Honors list named her an MBE in 2004, and an OBE followed in 2018. In 2012 she was one of nine composers chosen to write for the Queen's Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant. Since 2015 she has served as composer in residence at Classic FM.