Richard Johnsen is a South African film composer. His music has been featured on Sky, AMC+, Amazon Prime, and numerous film festivals, including Bolton, HollyShorts, San Jose, and North East International. In 2025, he was nominated for Best Score at the Watersprite Film Festival and won Best Soundtrack at the Beeston Film Festival for Asa Gartland’s Hold… Please!

Growing up on a small farm outside Cape Town, Johnsen signed up for piano lessons after watching a 20th-anniversary rerelease of Amadeus. Since then, notable career highlights include scoring the HollyShorts-selected drama Shouting at the Sea, winning ‘Best Music’ at the Top Indie Film Awards for Danny Cotton's Futurity Infinite, and ‘Best Score’ at the Royal Wolf Film Awards for Cotton’s follow-up, Collide. Additionally, Johnsen produced Mo Phoenix’s “Pearl” for Sky’s 2024 Fallen series and orchestrated Sebb Masters’ single “Something’s in the Water” for Blend Films’ Contact Hours.

As of 2025, Johnsen has assisted two-time Academy Award-nominee Patrick Doyle, Dutch-German Composer Jan Willem de With, and Matthew Slater’s music preparation team for Dreamworks’ The Wild Robot and Hulu’s Alien: Earth.

Outside of film, his collaborations include Tête à Tête Opera (Three Penelopes), the English National Ballet School (ENBS Young Choreographers 2023), the Frozen Light Theatre Group (2065), and Emmy-award-winner Hugh Wooldridge (The Last Broadcast).

Johnsen studied music at Durham University before pursuing composition under Dimitri Scarlato and Haris Kittos at the Royal College of Music.