Ariel Marx is an American multi-instrumentalist and composer of music for film and television. [1] She earned Emmy nominations in 2023 for her score for National Geographic's miniseries A Small Light , [2] and in 2025 for her scores for the Hulu miniseries Dying for Sex and the Netflix anthology series Black Mirror . [3]
Marx had an interest in playing and writing music from a young age, but studied ethnomusicology and plant biology during her time as an undergraduate at Hampshire College. After graduating, she pursued a growing interest in music composition, spending several years enrolled in private lessons to prepare for graduate school applications in film scoring. [2] Marx was accepted into the NYU Music Theory and Composition program, from which she graduated in 2015. [4] She eventually narrowed her focus to music composition for film and television after repeatedly collaborating with filmmakers from various schools throughout the city. [5]
While enrolled at NYU, Marx was accepted to the Columbia/ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop, where she wrote the music for the short film Dear Mother, and received the Mancini Music Fellowship award for “Most Promising Composer.” [6] [7] Dear Mother co-director Reka Posta introduced Marx to writer and director Jennifer Fox, who she worked with to compose the music for Fox's film, The Tale , starring Laura Dern. [8] The Tale was screened at the 2018 Tribeca Festival alongside So You Like the Neighborhood and To Dust , both of which were also scored by Marx. [9]
Marx's career reached a turning point in 2020 when she was selected to score Emma Seligman's debut feature film, Shiva Baby . [10] The critically acclaimed indie film, starring Rachel Sennott, was widely praised for Marx's sparse, but textured and dissident score. [11] Following this, Marx scored her first major television project, Ted Bundy: Falling for a Killer , a five-part true crime docuseries. [12] Her work attracted the attention of writers Robin Veith, Nick Antosca, and Michael Uppendahl, who Marx then collaborated with to compose the score for Candy , which aired on Hulu. [13] Candy's score, described as both bewitching and sweet, was named third best score of the year on IndieWire's Best TV Scores of 2022 list. [14]
Beginning in late 2022, Marx spent five months composing the score for National Geographic's A Small Light after being selected for the project by director Susanna Fogel. [15] To help tell the story of Miep Gies, the Dutch woman who hid Anne Frank, Marx assembled a team of four musicians to pair with her own instrumentations, which included percussion, violin, cello, guitar, and synth. [16] Although the score was recorded remotely, Marx seamlessly weaved together a playful and experimental soundscape. [16] For her work on A Small Light, Marx received an Emmy nomination in the category of “Outstanding Music Composition For A Limited Or Anthology Series, Movie Or Special." [17]