About Jim

James L. Venable (born in Santa Monica, California) is an American composer, working primarily on original scores for film, television and games.  Jim started out in music playing drums in various obscure 80’s new wave/rock bands, He found a passion for percussion, rhythms and technology in the form of a borrowed Prophet 5 that become a staple in all of his early “experimental” music. Coming from this electronic background, he has always looked for a chance to experiment with analogue synths, computers and emerging music technology.  His musical voice really began to take shape when he visited a James Newton Howard scoring session and was blown away by the amazing effect of combining Orchestral music with everything he loved; synthesizers, computer tech and live musicians!

While working as a DJ, he was always composing, creating Hybrid Orchestral Music.  He quickly became is known for his scores to the animated television series THE POWERPUFF GIRLS, SAMURAI JACK, and FOSTER’S HOME FOR IMAGINARY FRIENDS. FOSTER'S was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music in 2005, the same score won a 2005 Annie Award—Venable's third of four—for achievement in music for an animated series. Jim also, accomplished one of his lifelong dreams of contributing to the Star Wars universe as one of the original composer's for Tartakovsky’s STAR WARS: CLONE WARS.

Among Venable's feature film scores are JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK, SCARY MOVIE 3, 4, and 5 and EUROTRIP. These projects gave Jim an opportunity to compose for larger Orchestras and explore combining them with Electronic Instruments.  In Summer of 2004, Venable released an electronica album titled Holding Space with Screaming Fan Records. He is currently working on his next release, “Arrival”  which will blend Jim's passion for music, "immersive audio"  and original Hi-Def visual imagery. He recently completed the score for KEVIN SMITH'S most recent feature film, JAY AND SILENT BOB REBOOT and will soon be completing his second season composing music for the animated show FUNGIES on HBO Max.

Jim is an active Instructor at UCLA extension, teaching courses on Advanced Film Composition and Electronic Music for Film and Television.