ABOUT
I’m the “2017 Best Pop Album” winner on the right
Shaun Hettinger is a film, television, and games composer known for building bespoke, hybrid sonic worlds tailored to each story he scores. Working across dark electronic, orchestral, piano-driven, and experimental palettes, his approach centers on unlocking a distinct, original sound identity for every project rather than relying on genre templates.
His work spans dozens of films, including feature films, series, and short-form projects that have screened internationally and received prestigious honors and awards at film festivals around the world. Recent work includes composing music for a high-profile Fortnite / Star Wars crossover project, alongside scoring narrative films, television pilots, and documentary work for major platforms.
Shaun’s entry into the film and television space began when his music was selected as the theme for Netflix’s first-ever nightly talk show, Chelsea, marking an early collaboration with Netflix. That project led to the founding of Neon Moon Studios, through which he has since worked with a wide range of clients including Amazon, YouTube, Revlon, MTV, Pfizer, Gatorade, and others.
A defining strength of Shaun’s work is his adaptive, composer-as-architect mindset. Much like the eclectic scoring careers of Danny Elfman and Mark Mothersbaugh, he approaches each project as an opportunity to design a new musical language from the ground up — reshaping instrumentation, texture, harmony, and rhythm to serve narrative, tone, and character.
Sonically, his scores often live in the tension between modular synthesizer–driven experimentation — influenced by the textural, exploratory techniques of Trent Reznor — and the emotive piano, restraint, and atmospheric depth associated with composers like Thomas Newman. The result is music that feels psychologically grounded, emotionally precise, and inseparable from the story it supports.
Before transitioning fully into scoring, Shaun spent over 15 years as a band frontman and songwriter, leading buzz-worthy projects based in Los Angeles and New York City. His bands achieved a modest but meaningful level of success, earning press from outlets such as NYLON, URB, and Under The Radar, releasing a Top-100 charting album on iTunes, and securing dozens of #1 placements on Hype Machine’s blog aggregate charts. That background continues to inform his instinct for melody, texture, and emotional pacing across long-form narratives.
Today, Shaun works primarily remote-first, collaborating closely with directors, editors, music supervisors, and post-production teams on film, television, and narrative games. He is drawn to projects where the score plays an active role in shaping tone, psychology, and world-building — and where music is treated as a storytelling instrument, not an afterthought.