Benson Taylor
Benson Taylor FRSA (born Mark Davison 10 September 1983) is an English composer, songwriter, record producer, and humanitarian. He is best known for his music in Grey's Anatomy, Orange is the New Black, London Fields and the eighth highest-grossing Mexican film of all time The Perfect Dictatorship. In November 2016, Taylor was awarded an honorary doctorate for services to humanitarian causes & music.
Benson Taylor FRSA | |
|---|---|
Taylor in 2014 | |
| Born | Mark Davison 10 September 1983 Bradford, West Yorkshire, England |
| Alma mater | University of California, Los Angeles |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, songwriter, remixer, DJ, record producer, label owner, businessman |
| Children | 2 |
| Musical career | |
| Genres | Ambient, classical, film score, electronic, dark ambient, hip hop, Post-industrial, experimental music, alternative rock |
| Instrument(s) | Trumpet, piano, synthesizers, music sequencer, drum machine |
| Years active | 2009–present |
| Labels | Decca, Universal Music, EMI Music Publishing, Warner Music Group, Sony/ATV |
| Website | bensontaylor |
He founded A Remarkable Idea in 2017, a sub label of Universal Music, located in London & Santa Monica, California. Taylor has collaborated and produced artists for the label, including MOBO-winning jazz quartet Kairos 4Tet, The Halle Orchestra, Mercury Prize-nominated Maxïmo Park and Kele Okereke, Bloc Party, Good Charlotte's Billy Martin, Pulled Apart by Horses, Robot Koch, Lack of Afro, Benoît Pioulard, Bo Ningen, James Brown, and Menace Beach.
Taylor won the "Best Original Music" award at the 2014 Monaco International Film Festival. In 2018, he scored and produced the music to Mathew Cullen's thriller adaptation of the Martin Amis novel, London Fields, starring Billy Bob Thornton, Amber Heard, Lily Cole, Cara Delevingne, Theo James and Johnny Depp. In 2020, he scored the music for the film, Chick Fight, starring Bella Thorne, Alec Baldwin & Malin Akerman, for which he also served as executive producer.
Taylor is an goodwill ambassador for the UK aid agency CAFOD, part of Caritas Internationalis, and a goodwill ambassador for the Cambodian Children's Trust. He is patron of the British charity, Music and the Deaf. Taylor was appointed the first ambassador of the Leeds Conservatoire, and in November 2021, he was installed as the first honorary Composer in Residence at the University of Huddersfield, both in the United Kingdom.
He is a resident DJ on Los Angeles based radio station Dublab, and he is a guest DJ on NTS Radio in London.