James L. Venable (born in Santa Monica, California) is an American composer, working primarily on original scores for film, television and games.  While playing drums in various obscure 80’s new wave/rock bands, Jim found a passion for percussion, rhythms and technology in the form of a borrowed Prophet 5 synthesizer that  became a staple in all of his 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 film music created with everything he loved; synthesizers, computer tech and live musicians!

While working as a DJ, he was always composing and 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. 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 the 2018 feature film, SUPERCON and wrapped three seasons composing music for the hit animated show CLARENCE on Cartoon Network.

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Jim’s teaching career began in 2008 at UCLA Extension where he taught ELECTRONIC MUSIC FOR FILM AND TELEVISION. While continuing to compose music for various media projects, Jim has continued to provide students with the necessary tools for a career in Film, TV and Media Composition through his private music coaching services.