About Jim
James L. Venable is an American composer whose music lives somewhere between orchestra, electronics, rhythm, noise, melody and whatever else makes the picture work.
Born in Santa Monica, California, James started out behind a drum kit, playing in a collection of gloriously obscure ’80s new wave and rock bands. A drum set from his grandmother and a borrowed Prophet-5 sent him down the rabbit hole of percussion, synthesizers and music technology, and he never really came back.
The turning point came when he attended a James Newton Howard scoring session and heard an orchestra collide with synthesizers, computers and live musicians. Suddenly all the things he loved about music belonged in the same room. That collision of worlds became a defining part of his musical voice.
After years of DJing, experimenting and writing hybrid orchestral music, James found his way into film and television. He became known for his scores to THE POWERPUFF GIRLS, SAMURAI JACK and FOSTER’S HOME FOR IMAGINARY FRIENDS. Foster’s earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music, and James has received four Annie Awards for his work in animation.
He also fulfilled a lifelong ambition when he became one of the original composers for Genndy Tartakovsky’s STAR WARS: CLONE WARS. His more recent animation work includes Cartoon Network’s CLARENCE and HBO Max’s THE FUNGIES.
James’ feature-film scores include JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK, VENOM, SCARY MOVIE 3, SCARY MOVIE 4, SCARY MOVIE 5, EUROTRIP, JAY AND SILENT BOB REBOOT and CLERKS III. Those projects have taken him everywhere from large-scale orchestral writing to grunge guitars, electronic textures, comedy, action and combinations that don't fit neatly into a genre.
Outside of scoring, James has continued to make music simply because he likes making music. His electronica album HOLDING SPACE was released through Screaming Fan Records, and he is currently developing ARRIVAL, a new project combining original music, immersive audio and original high-definition imagery.
James has performed as a live composer in Los Angeles’ underground comedy and theater scene, creating music in real time for clown, improv and theatrical-mask performances—where anything can happen and usually does.
James first joined UCLA Extension as an instructor in 2007, teaching Electronic Composition for Film and Television. He returned to UCLA Extension in 2018 and contiues the Advanced Film Scoring Workshop, sharing the creative and technical workflow developed over decades of working in film, television and animation.
Over the years, and because of the wide range of projects he’s been fortunate enough to work on, James became known as something of a musical chameleon—a character actor of composition. From orchestra to electronics, punk and grunge to jazz, comedy, action and the downright strange, he has always loved stepping into a new musical world and finding the voice that belongs there.