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About
Shao Jean is a Singaporean composer, producer, and songwriter whose contemporary records and film scores move fluidly between acoustic instruments, electronics, and orchestral textures. Shao creates music that leaves room for ambiguity, often finding unusual connections between familiar sounds. Subtly strange around the edges and emotionally resonant, her music brings a distinctly modern sensibility to the screen.
Most recently, Shao scored Retrieval, which premiered in the Documentary Competition at the 2026 Tribeca Festival. The Americana-tinged score received support from the New Music USA’s Reel Change Film Fund. Shao previously scored The Songs of Drifters, winner of the Gold medal in the Alternative/Experimental category at the 2025 Student Academy Awards. Her work as a composer spans narrative film, documentary, animation, theatre, and games, and has continued to find recognition on the festival circuit.
A trusted collaborator across the music department, her credits include additional music and assisting on Sung Kang’s upcoming feature Drifter, Sony’s I Know What You Did Last Summer for Chanda Dancy, as well as additional music and arrangements for Netflix’s Eric for Keefus Ciancia. Her orchestration credits include lead orchestrator and conductor on Searchlight Pictures’ Wendy for Dan Romer. Her wider credits span orchestration, score production, and technical roles on projects including Welcome to Wrexham, Ted Lasso, and The Naked Gun.
Alongside her scoring work, Shao writes, produces, and arranges records with artists across Asia and the United States, including Jingfei Chen, Fool and Idiot, and Leyeux. She began her career at the Village Studios in Los Angeles, where she worked as an assistant engineer on recordings by artists including Stevie Nicks, Leann Rimes, and “Weird Al” Yankovic.
A graduate of Berklee College of Music and later the Screen Scoring program at the USC Thornton School of Music, Shao’s concert work has been premiered by the UN Orchestra in New York. In 2023, she was selected as one of 12 composers for the inaugural Composer Filmmaker Accelerator at the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Shao resides in Los Angeles, CA.
Picture Credit: Christian Amonson
Picture Credit: Jay Mcgregor
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