Johan Söderqvist grew up in Täby outside Stockholm and began his musical career as a touring keyboardist across jazz and folk ensembles before shifting focus to writing. Following studies in composition and arranging at the Royal College of Music, Stockholm, he delivered his debut screen score for the 1991 feature Agnes Cecilia: En Sällsam Historia. Several additional film projects preceded his contribution to the 1993 television miniseries Morsarvet. That same year he issued the jazz recording Life (To Be), then partnered with James Schaffer and Jojje Wadenius to create material for the 1995 children’s album Till Alla Barn.
Subsequent assignments spanned multiple cinematic forms, among them the crime picture Beneath the Surface (Under Ytan, 1997), the family drama We Can Be Heroes! (Bäst I Sverige!, 2002), the intimate After the Wedding (Efter Brylluppet, 2006), and the period romance Effi Briest (2009). His work reached international audiences through the 2010 Danish thriller In a Better World (Hævnen), which received the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film the next year. Beginning in 2011 he joined the regular composing team for the widely viewed crime drama The Bridge (Bron/Broen). The 2012 foreign-language Oscar nominee Kon-Tiki also carried a Söderqvist score.
In 2016 he contributed to the television police series Spring Tide (Springfloden). The same year EA Music issued the orchestral soundtrack for the video game Battlefield 1, credited to Söderqvist and Patrik Andrén. Varèse Sarabande released his music for the U.K. horror film The Limehouse Golem in 2017.
