Draft:Max Aruj
Max Aruj | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 7, 1989 Los Angeles, United States |
| Genres | Film and television scores, video game scores, jazz, rock, electronic, EDM, ambient, new age |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, conductor, arranger |
| Instruments | Piano, keyboards, synthesizer, guitar |
| Years active | 2009–present |
| Website | https://maxaruj.com |
Max Aruj (born August 7, 1989) is an American composer known for his work in film, television, and video games.[1] He is best known for his collaborations with Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe, contributing to the scores for The Crown, His Dark Materials, Top Gun: Maverick, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One. As a solo composer, Aruj has written music for Crawl, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Wrath of the Druids, The Ice Road, Lansky, Mech Cadets, MoviePass, MovieCrash, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, and The Old Guard 2.
Early life and education
[edit]Aruj was born and raised in Los Angeles, beginning his studies at the age of six in classical and jazz piano.[2] Eventually, he would begin writing music in high school and went on to receive a Bachelor’s in Music Composition at the USC Thornton School of Music.[3]
Career
[edit]Aruj has served in the music department for various Remote Control Productions composers since 2010, mainly Lorne Balfe and Hans Zimmer. Outside of his work on film and television, he also composed and conducted arrangements for music artist Gryffin at Coachella in 2019.[4]
Filmography
[edit]Music department
[edit]| Year | Title | Director(s) | Composer(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | People of Importance | Sam Lichtig | Kyle Malkin | short film, additional music |
| 2011 | Dinner With Fred | Ben Proudfoot | short film, music editor / score advisor | |
| Harry Welcomes Arctic Heroes | Alexis Girardet | Lorne Balfe | documentary, additional music | |
| Five | Jennifer Aniston Patty Jenkins Alicia Keys Demi Moore Penelope Spheeris |
television film, additional music | ||
| Assassin's Creed Revelations | — | Lorne Balfe Jesper Kyd |
video game, additional arrangements | |
| Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters | Tony Leondis | Lorne Balfe Hans Zimmer John Powell |
short film, music technical assistant | |
| 2012 | Volviendo | Phillip Abraham Diego Traverso Brittany Yost |
Kyle Malkin | documentary, score advisor |
| Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted | Eric Darnell Conrad Vernon Tom McGrath |
Hans Zimmer | music technical assistant | |
| The Dark Knight Rises | Christopher Nolan | |||
| The Sweeney | Nick Love | Lorne Balfe | ||
| Skylanders: Giants | — | video game, additional music | ||
| Assassin's Creed III | — | |||
| 2013 | The Frozen Ground | Scott Walker | music technical assistant | |
| Girl Rising | Richard E. Robbins | documentary film, additional music | ||
| The Bible | Crispin Reece Tony Mitchell Christopher Spencer |
Lorne Balfe Hans Zimmer Lisa Gerrard |
television series, additional arrangements | |
| Fast & Furious 6 | Justin Lin | Lucas Vidal | recording assistant | |
| The Lone Ranger | Gore Verbinski | Hans Zimmer | music technical assistant | |
| Not Another Happy Ending | John McKay | Lorne Balfe | additional arrangements | |
| Rush | Ron Howard | Hans Zimmer | score technical engineer | |
| Salinger | Shane Salerno | Lorne Balfe | documentary film, music technical assistant | |
| Captain Phillips | Paul Greengrass | Henry Jackman | music technical assistant (uncredited) | |
| Red Wing | Will Wallace | Lorne Balfe | additional arrangements | |
| Beyond: Two Souls | — | video game, additional music | ||
| Side By Side | Arthur Landon | Lorne Balfe Dan Michaelson |
music technical assistant | |
| Skylanders: Swap Force | — | Lorne Balfe | video game, additional music | |
| 2014 | Son of God | Christopher Spencer | Lorne Balfe Lisa Gerrard Hans Zimmer |
additional arrangements |
| Skylanders: Trap Team | — | Lorne Balfe | video game, additional music | |
| Penguins of Madagascar | Eric Darnell Simon J. Smith |
music programmer / score technical engineer | ||
| 2015 | Home | Tim Johnson | Lorne Balfe Stargate |
music technical assistant |
| Dough | John Goldschmidt | Lorne Balfe | ||
| Terminator Genisys | Alan Taylor | |||
| A.D. The Bible Continues | — | television series, additional music | ||
| Captive | Jerry Jameson | music technical assistant | ||
| American Hero | Nick Love | additional arrangements | ||
| Saints & Strangers | Paul A. Edwards | television series, additional music | ||
| Wasted Beauty | Martin Paves | music technical assistant | ||
| 2016 | 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi | Michael Bay | ||
| Kung Fu Panda 3 | Jennifer Yuh Nelson Alessandro Carloni |
Hans Zimmer | ||
| War on Everyone | John Michael McDonagh | Lorne Balfe | additional music | |
| Marcella | — | |||
| The Last Face | Sean Penn | Hans Zimmer | ||
| The Investigator: A British Crime Story | — | Lorne Balfe | television series, additional music | |
| Hacksaw Ridge | Mel Gibson | Rupert Gregson-Williams | music technical assistant (uncredited) | |
| The Crown | — | television series, additional music | ||
| 2017 | The Lego Batman Movie | Chris McKay | Lorne Balfe | score producer |
| Ghost in the Shell | Rupert Sanders | Lorne Balfe Clint Mansell |
additional arrangements | |
| Genius | — | Lorne Balfe | television series, additional music | |
| The Florida Project | Sean Baker | technical score assistant | ||
| Dunkirk | Christopher Nolan | Hans Zimmer | ||
| 2018 | 12 Strong | Nicolai Fuglsig | Lorne Balfe | score producer |
| Studio 54 | Matt Tyrnauer | documentary film, additional music | ||
| The Hurricane Heist | Rob Cohen | additional music | ||
| Pacific Rim Uprising | Steven S. DeKnight | score producer | ||
| Bulletproof | — | additional music | ||
| Mission: Impossible – Fallout | Christopher McQuarrie | score technical assistant | ||
| Driven | Nick Hamm | Geronimo Mercado | additional music | |
| FIFA 19 | — | Hans Zimmer Lorne Balfe |
video game, additional music | |
| 2019 | Georgetown | Christoph Waltz | Lorne Balfe | additional music |
| Ad Astra | James Gray | Max Richter | ||
| Gemini Man | Ang Lee | Lorne Balfe | additional arrangements | |
| Jungleland | Max Winkler | score technical assistant | ||
| Military Wives | Peter Cattaneo | additional arrangements | ||
| 6 Underground | Michael Bay | score technical assistant | ||
| His Dark Materials | — | additional music | ||
| 2020 | Bad Boys for Life | Adil El Arbi Bilall Fallah | ||
| Rebuilding Paradise | Ron Howard | Lorne Balfe Hans Zimmer |
documentary film, additional music | |
| Love Wedding Repeat | Dean Craig | — | additional music | |
| Songbird | Adam Mason | Lorne Balfe | additional arrangements | |
| The Reagans | Matt Tyrnauer | — | television series, additional music | |
| Pennyworth | — | David E. Russo Lorne Balfe | ||
| 2021 | The Tomorrow War | Chris McKay | Lorne Balfe | additional music |
| Black Widow | Cate Shortland | |||
| Silent Night | Camille Griffin | |||
| 2022 | Top Gun: Maverick | Joseph Kosinski | Harold Faltermeyer Lady Gaga Hans Zimmer |
additional arrangements |
| Obi-Wan Kenobi | Deborah Chow | Natalie Holt | television series, additional music | |
| 2023 | Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One | Christopher McQuarrie | Lorne Balfe | additional music |
| 2024 | Bad Boys: Ride or Die | Adil El Arbi Bilall Fallah | ||
| Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F | Mark Molloy | additional arrangements / synthesizer programmer | ||
| Dragon Age: The Veilguard | — | Hans Zimmer Lorne Balfe |
video game, additional arrangements |
As composer
[edit]| Year | Title | Director(s) | Studio(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | The Abandoned | Eytan Rockaway | IFC Films | — |
| 2016 | The Story of God with Morgan Freeman | — | National Geographic | documentary series, co-composed with Lorne Balfe and Steffen Thum |
| 2017 | iBoy | Adam Randall | Netflix | co-composed with Steffen Thum |
| 2019 | Crawl | Alexandre Aja | Paramount Pictures | |
| This Is Football | — | Amazon Studios | documentary series, co-composed with Lorne Balfe and Steffen Thum | |
| 2020 | Empires of New York | Matthew Galkin | CNBC | television series |
| 2021 | Me You Madness | Louise Linton | STXfilms | |
| Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Wrath of the Druids | — | Ubisoft | video game | |
| The Ice Road | Jonathan Hensleigh | Netflix | ||
| Lansky | Eytan Rockaway | Vertical Entertainment | ||
| 2023 | The Tank | Scott Walker | Well Go USA Entertainment | [5] |
| Mech Cadets | Kazuma Shimzu Hiroyuki Hayashi |
Netflix | television series | |
| 2024 | MoviePass, MovieCrash | Muta’Ali | HBO | documentary film |
| 2025 | Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning | Christopher McQuarrie | Paramount Pictures | replaced Lorne Balfe, co-composed with Alfie Godfrey[6] |
| The Old Guard 2 | Victoria Mahoney | Netflix | co-composed with Ruth Barrett |
References
[edit]- ^ "Max Aruj". Squarespace. Retrieved 2025-04-25.
- ^ "An Interview With Max Aruj". Naroth Audio. Retrieved 2025-04-25.
- ^ Hughes, Rachel (21 June 2021). "Interview with The Ice Road Composer Max Aruj". Supe Troop. Retrieved 2025-04-25.
- ^ "Max Aruj - Kraft-Engel Management". Kraft-Engel Management. Retrieved 2025-04-25.
- ^ Reeves, Rachel (25 April 2023). "'The Tank' Composer Max Aruj on Scoring The New Creature Feature". Dread Central. Retrieved 2025-04-26.
- ^ "Max Aruj & Alfie Godfrey Scoring Christopher McQuarrie's 'Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning'". Film Music Reporter. April 18, 2025. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
External links
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