Jesper Kyd

Born Jesper Kyd Jakobson on February 3, 1972, in Hørsholm, Denmark, Jesper Kyd is a composer, sound designer, and musician who is best known for his work in the video game industry. He has composed the soundtracks to the Assassin’s Creed series, the Hitman series, and many others. He started playing the piano at a very young age before tackling classical guitar and choral singing. From the age of 13, he used his classical training in computer-assisted music with his Commodore 128 model, then on Amiga. His first score for a video game was 1990’s USS John Young. He then founded the development studio Zyrinx in 1992 and produced the soundtracks for the games Sub-Terrania (1993) and Red Zone (1994). He eventually became a freelance composer and began making inroads in the film industry but still invested a lot of his time composing music for video games. In 2000, he scored Hitman: Codename 47, which was the first of many titles he scored for the series. He also composed the music for the popular Assassin’s Creed series beginning in 2007. Another one of his best-known series is Borderlands, which debuted in 2009. In all, Jesper Kyd has composed the music for more than 55 video games which includes Borderlands 3 (2019) and Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla (2020). His work in the film industry has included over 20 motion pictures and short films. He has won numerous honors and awards over the years including a BAFTA Award in 2005 for Best Original Music and a Nile Rodgers Global Creators Award in 2018.