Amanda Jones (composer)

Jones was born on October 26, 1988, in Columbia, Maryland and began playing piano at the age of three and guitar around the age of fourteen.[4] Jones attended Vassar College intending to study chemistry but subsequently changed her major to music.[4] Jones studied music composition, production, and classical guitar under Terry Champlin. She earned a BA in music from Vassar and received certificates in film scoring and orchestration from the Berklee College of Music.[5]

After graduating from Vassar, Jones moved to Los Angeles in 2010 to record with her indie rock band, The Anti-Job, and started to consider a parallel career composing music for television and films.

In 2014 through 2016, Jones worked as a music production assistant for Hans Zimmer, Henry Jackson, John Powell, and Michael Levine.[6] Her work during that time included the films How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Kingsman: The Secret Service.[6]

In 2016, Jones landed a job as a senior music coordinator for Lionsgate.[1] During that time she worked on several television series including Nashville (CMT), Dear White People (Netflix), and Greenleaf (OWN).[7] In 2018, Jones got an opportunity to score her first feature film, One Angry Black Man.[8] Jones has since scored numerous short and feature films, including Andre Hormann's documentary feature Ringside; Smriti Mundhra and Sami Khan’s Oscar-nominated documentary St. Louis Superman; and Sujata Day’s feature film Definition Please.[9]

Jones television credits include OWN’s anthology series Cherish the Day, produced by Ava DuVernay; BET’s Twenties produced by Lena Waithe;[5] HBO’s A Black Lady Sketch Show produced by Robin Thede and Issa Rae; the comedy series Shitty Boyfriends produced by Lisa Kudrow;[10] Love in the Time of Corona on Freeform; and the Apple TV+ series Home.[11]

Jones scored the “Maine” episode of Home, for which she received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Music Composition for a Documentary Series or Special (Original Dramatic Score),[12] becoming the first African American woman nominated in a scores category at the Emmys.[2]

• Outstanding Music Composition for a Documentary Series or Special (Original Dramatic Score) -Home – "Maine" – Apple TV+ – MediaWeaver/Four M Studios/Altimeter Films, Composer.[3]
• NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Gospel/Christian Album for Greenleaf on OWN.[1]
• S&G Rising Award for musical composition work in film and television (2019).[6]

Co-founder of Composers Diversity Collective[13] whose mission is to increase the visibility of composers of diverse backgrounds and facilitates mentoring.[2]