Oscar-Nominated Songwriter Signs With WME

J. Ralph, fresh off his first Academy Award nomination for best original song, has signed with WME.

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What WME's Big Score Means

The composer-singer-songwriter-producer penned “Before My Time,” performed by Scarlett Johansson and Grammy-winning violinist Joshua Bell, for the global-warming documentary Chasing Ice, for which Ralph also composed the score. The Oscar ultimately went to Adele and her co-writer Paul Epworth for the title track from Skyfall.

Ralph began his film music career working on such commercial features as Mystery Men and Lucky Number Slevin before establishing himself as a composer of scores for critically acclaimed documentaries, including the Oscar-winning Man on Wire and The Cove, Oscar-nominated Hell and Back Again as well as Wretches & Jabberers, for which he wrote a soundtrack that features longtime friend Johansson.

Traditionally film composers have been represented by specialized boutique agencies, but in 2011, WME launched a division dedicated to music for film, television and digital platforms, immediately signing up Hans Zimmer, who brought with him a stable of emerging composers from his Remote Control Productions. Although WME’s subsequent signings have been more low-key, landing a relatively young client like Ralph — who runs his own music production company, The Rumor Mill — could be the agency’s way of staking its claim in the future of film music.