David Ari Leon

David Ari Leon
Leon at the 2012 Comic-Con
Background information
Born	(1967-12-12) December 12, 1967 (age 58) Los Angeles, California, United States
Occupations	Composer, musician, songwriter, music supervisor
Years active	1990–present
Labels	Vitamin Records, SoundMind Music
Website	SoundMindMusic.com

David Ari Leon (born December 12, 1967) is an American music supervisor, composer, songwriter and musician. ^[1]

Leon's first professional music credit was in 1990 working with Danny Elfman on the feature film Nightbreed. ^[2] He is best known for writing and supervising music for Marvel Entertainment on titles including Spider-Man and The Incredible Hulk . ^[3] He is a songwriter on the themes to the Marvel series The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and The Super Hero Squad Show , and composed the main title music to the shows Xyber 9: New Dawn and Mr. Bill Presents. ^[4] Leon was also commissioned by NASA to be the music supervisor on their video "29 Days on the Edge" about the James Webb Space Telescope which NASA released in conjunction with the launch of the space telescope in 2021. ^[5]

Featured music

Leon has been featured as a music artist on NPR's syndicated programs Morning Edition and All Things Considered in ten episodes between the years 2005 to 2018. ^{[6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]}

He was also featured on the album "Rockabye Baby! Baby's Favorite Rock Songs," ^[16] which was available exclusively at Starbucks March 23 – April 19, 2010. The album reached #3 on Billboard's Kids Albums chart, ^[17] #18 on the Billboard Independent Albums, ^[18] and #111 on the Billboard Top 200. ^[19] It contains a version of the Rolling Stones song Ruby Tuesday that Leon performed and produced for the Rockabye Baby! series, ^[20] which also features the artists Björk, Journey and Kanye West.

Education and early career

College

In 1990, Leon received a B.A. degree from UCLA in music composition, where he focused on piano performance, film scoring and electronic music production. While attending the university, he did internships with Academy Award-nominated composers, Mark Isham and Danny Elfman, the latter of which resulted in Leon's first feature film credit on the Clive Barker film Nightbreed . ^[21] Immediately following his completion of university, Leon worked on Days of Our Lives , garnering him an Emmy nomination for "Outstanding Music Director." ^[22]

Marvel and Fox

In 1994, Leon began working for New World, the parent company of Marvel at that time, as music director and composer on the TV series Valley of the Dolls . ^[23] The following year (1995) was the start of his work for Marvel as composer and music supervisor on the show Spider-Man , along with other titles for Fox Kids. ^[24]

Leon subsequently held a vice president of music title for Fox from 1997 to 2002. During that time, he received music supervisor credits on many film and television projects for Fox such as the miniseries Les Misérables starring John Malkovich and the primetime series State of Grace , starring Frances McDormand. ^[25]

Recent works

More recently, Leon performed and arranged songs for a series of albums on Vitamin Records by artists including Neil Young, The Cure, R.E.M. and Pink Floyd. ^{[26] [27]} He has also music supervised and written music for a series of interactive and Motion Comics for Marvel, starting with The Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon, ^[28] and including the recent Captain America: The Winter Soldier , which was the first digital comic to have an interactive soundtrack. Other more recent work for Marvel includes Leon being the music supervisor on eight films co-produced by Lions Gate including Thor: Tales of Asgard and The Invincible Iron Man . ^[29] 2019 found Leon writing a series of songs for the successful Netflix Original series, Super Monsters. While continuing his TV music work on shows such as the Emmy winning ABC show Sea Rescue and the Emmy nominated ABC show The Wildlife Docs, Leon also currently scores music for popular titles for EA and other interactive companies. Games with Leon's music include hit titles such as Contre Jour, ^[30] Superman, ^[31] Snoopy Coaster and Woody Woodpecker, ^[32] which garnered Leon a Hollywood Music in Media Award nomination for his original score to the title. ^[33] Leon's music was also included in the educational project Kiwaka , a game exploring the concept of tangential learning. ^[34]

Filmography

Works with a credit of Music Supervisor and/or Composer

Year(s)	Title	Credited as		Notes
		Music Supervisor	Composer
1990- -1994	Days of Our Lives	Y		NBCUniversal, 300 episodes Emmy Nomination, Outstanding Music [35]
1994	Valley of the Dolls	Y	Y	A Fox series, 65 episodes
1995- -1998	Spider-Man		Y	A Marvel series starring Mark Hamill, 65 episodes
1995	Mighty Morphin Power Rangers	Y		A Fox series, 28 episodes
1996	Masked Rider	Y		A Fox series, 40 episodes
	Power Rangers Zeo	Y
1996- -1997	The Incredible Hulk	Y	Y	A Marvel series starring Luke Perry, 21 episodes
1996- -1998	Dragon Ball Z	Y		Music Supervised 53 episodes of this series
1997	Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie	Y		A 20th Century Studios film
1997	Big Bad Beetleborgs	Y		Music Supervised 88 episodes of this series
1998	Rusty: A Dog's Tale	Y		A film starring Rodney Dangerfield
	Richie Rich's Christmas Wish	Y		A film starring Eugene Levy
	Ohh Nooo! Mr. Bill Presents	Y	Y	A 20th Century Studios series starring Rowan Atkinson, 53 episodes [36]
	Like Father, Like Santa	Y		A film starring Harry Hamlin
	Power Rangers in Space	Y
1999	Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog	Y		A 20th Century Studios series, 50 episodes
	Power Rangers Lost Galaxy	Y
2000	Les Misérables	Y		A miniseries starring John Malkovich
	St. Patrick: The Irish Legend	Y		Recorded an Irish choir in Dublin for this film with Inon Zur
	Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue	Y
	Time Share	Y		A Fox film Starring Timothy Dalton
2000- -2001	Spider-Man Unlimited	Y		A Marvel series, 13 episodes
2001	State of Grace	Y		An ABC series starring Frances McDormand
	Three Days	Y		A film starring Kristin Davis
2006	Ultimate Avengers	Y		A Marvel Studios / Lionsgate film
2000- -2007	Xyber 9	Y	Y	A Fox series starring Tim Curry
2007	Invincible Iron Man	Y		A Marvel Studios / Lionsgate film
	Doctor Strange	Y		A Marvel Studios / Lionsgate film
2008	Next Avengers	Y		A Marvel Studios / Lionsgate film
	Wolverine and the X-Men	Y		A Marvel series, 26 episodes
2009- -2011	Super Hero Squad	Y	Y	A Marvel Series, Theme with Parry Gripp
2009	Hulk Vs.	Y		A Marvel Studios / Lionsgate film
2010	Iron Man: Extremis	Y	Y (Theme)	A Marvel series, Theme with Guy Erez, sung by Glen Phillips
	Planet Hulk	Y		A Marvel Studios / Lionsgate film
2011	Thor: Tales of Asgard	Y		A Marvel Studios / Lionsgate film
	Contre Jour		Y	An EA Game, Won "iPad Game of the Year" Award from Apple in 2011 [37]
2010- -2012	The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes	Y	Y (Theme)	A Marvel Series, Theme song with Guy Erez
2012	E.T. The Green Planet		Y	An EA game
	Astonishing X-Men	Y		A Marvel miniseries
	Woody Woodpecker		Y	An EA / NBCUniversal game with A HMMA Award nominated music score [38]
2013	Snoopy Coaster		Y	An EA / Peanuts game. Soundtrack described as "amazing" by reviewer. [39]
2013- -2018	The Wildlife Docs	Y	Y	An Emmy nominated ABC series 130 episodes
2013	Kiwaka		Y	A game made with ESA
2018- -2019	Super Monsters		Y	Songwriter on 10 original songs for this Netflix series.
2012- -2021	Sea Rescue	Y	Y	An Emmy-winning ABC series 178 episodes
2021	NASA's "29 Days on the Edge" for the JWST	Y		NASA [40] Nominated for Webby Award
2025	Committee Animal	Y		A film starring Leslie Zemeckis [41]

References

1. "All Music Guide". AllMusic.com. Retrieved April 29, 2011.
2. "IMDB". IMDB.com. Retrieved July 26, 2017.
3. "IMDB". IMDB.com. Retrieved July 26, 2017.
4. "IMDB". IMDB.com. Retrieved July 26, 2017.
5. "NASA". NASA.gov. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
6. "NPR, Morning Edition: June 29, 2005". NPR.org. June 29, 2005. Retrieved April 29, 2011.
7. "NPR, Morning Edition: Aug. 29, 2005". NPR.org. August 29, 2005. Retrieved April 29, 2011.
8. "NPR, Morning Edition: July 31, 2007". NPR.org. July 31, 2007. Retrieved April 29, 2011.
9. "NPR, Morning Edition: Dec. 31, 2008". NPR.org. December 31, 2008. Retrieved April 29, 2011.
10. "NPR, Morning Edition: Aug. 19, 2010". NPR.org. August 19, 2010. Retrieved April 29, 2011.
11. "NPR, Morning Edition: Jan. 16, 2012". NPR.org. Retrieved April 29, 2011.
12. "NPR, Morning Edition: Apr. 6, 2012". NPR.org. Retrieved April 29, 2011.
13. "NPR, Morning Edition: June 6, 2014". NPR.org. June 6, 2014. Retrieved April 29, 2017.
14. "NPR, All Things Considered: Jan. 5, 2015". NPR.org. January 5, 2015. Retrieved February 2, 2018.
15. "NPR, All Things Considered: Nov. 17, 2015". NPR.org. November 17, 2015. Retrieved April 3, 2016.
16. "Album Credits Profile". AlbumCredits.com. Archived from the original on July 26, 2011. Retrieved April 29, 2011.
17. "Billboard". Billboard .
18. "Billboard - Music Charts, News, Photos & Video". Billboard .
19. "Billboard - Music Charts, News, Photos & Video". Billboard .
20. "David Ari Leon at AllRovi". AllRovi.com. Archived from the original on November 2, 2013. Retrieved April 29, 2011.
21. "IMDB". IMDB.com. Retrieved July 26, 2017.
22. "Awards Page: Internet Movie Database". IMDB.com. Retrieved April 29, 2011.
23. "IMDB". IMDB.com. Retrieved July 26, 2017.^{[ unreliable source ]}
24. "IMDB". IMDB.com. Retrieved July 26, 2017.^{[ unreliable source ]}
25. "IMDB". IMDB.com. Retrieved July 26, 2017.^{[ unreliable source ]}
26. "Artist Page: David Ari Leon". Billboard.com. Retrieved April 29, 2011.
27. "David Ari Leon at Amazon". Amazon.com. Retrieved April 29, 2011.
28. "Marvel Debuts 'Astonishing X-Men' Music Video". TheFlickCast.com. October 28, 2009. Retrieved April 29, 2011.
29. "IMDB". IMDB.com. Retrieved July 26, 2017.
30. "Contre Jour HD: A Wonderful Puzzler". USA Today. September 8, 2011. Retrieved September 8, 2011.
31. "Superman Review". 148 Apps. Retrieved November 17, 2011.
32. "Woody Woodpecker Arrives on iOS Devices". Electronic Theatre. Archived from the original on August 21, 2013. Retrieved January 17, 2012.
33. "HMMA 2012 Visual Media Nominees". Archived from the original on January 31, 2015. Retrieved January 17, 2012.
34. European Southern Observatory. "New App Kiwaka Features ESO Material". www.eso.org. Retrieved July 6, 2018.
35. "Awards Page: Internet Movie Database". IMDB.com. Retrieved April 29, 2011.
36. "Oh Noo! Mr. Bill Presents – Wikidata". Wikidata. Retrieved January 8, 2026.
37. "Contre Jour Named as iPad Game of the Year on App Store Rewind 2011". Develop . Archived from the original on February 21, 2013.
38. "HMMA 2012 Visual Media Nominees". Archived from the original on January 31, 2015. Retrieved January 17, 2012.
39. Flodline, Dave (March 26, 2013). "Snoopy Coaster Review". AppSpy. Retrieved February 9, 2021.
40. "NASA". NASA.gov. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
41. ""Committee Animal" Film on IMDB". IMDB. Retrieved January 8, 2026.

External links

• Official website
• David Ari Leon at IMDb
• David Ari Leon at Allmusic
• David Ari Leon at Last.FM