Composer

Katya Richardson is an Emmy-winning composer and pianist based in Los Angeles. Currently Composer-In-Residence at Breakwater Studios, she is best known for scoring the 2024 Academy Award-winning documentary The Last Repair Shop, which earned her Critics’ Choice and ASCAP Composers’ Choice nominations. She recently won a New York Emmy for her work on the PBS special Keeping the Pinelands, and in 2026, received a News & Documentary Emmy nomination for her score to The Final Copy of Ilon Specht.

Notably, she has also worked with composer Danny Elfman on The Grinch (2018) and Dr. Strange (2022), and with Rob Simonsen on Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021).

At 13 years old, Richardson was selected for the prestigious two-year LA Phil Composer Fellowship Program, where she premiered her piece Undefined with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall. In 2016, she composed Fanfare for the Hollywood Bowl Opening Night, featuring Steely Dan and conducted by Thomas Wilkins. Richardson’s creative and collaborative spirit extends into modern dance, with international premieres at London’s Royal Opera House and commissions for Norwegian National Ballet and Bayerisches Staatsballett in Munich. Her recent ballet, VORTEX, is a 75-minute collaboration with esteemed British choreographer Russell Maliphant OBE, which debuted at Sadler’s Wells in May 2023. In 2025, Richardson scored the Ukrainian docu-dance film Match in a Haystack, executive-produced by legendary ballerina Misty Copeland. Richardson is an alumna of the University of Southern California and a recipient of the prestigious Trustee Scholarship.