From Berklee Valencia to Hollywood: Alumna Amie Doherty’s Scoring Journey
Amie Doherty MM ’13
Image courtesy of Amie Doherty
Irish composer Amie Doherty MM ’13 made history as the first woman to score an animated feature film for a leading American animation studio, DreamWorks Animation, with the 2021 summer release Spirit Untamed.
An orchestrator and conductor, Doherty graduated from Berklee Valencia in 2013 with a master in Scoring for Film, Television, and Video Games. After moving to Los Angeles in 2014, she built her career step by step, first working as a composer assistant, then an orchestration assistant, and later as an orchestrator, while scoring indie films on the side. ”Orchestration was probably my main financial gig and took up a good chunk of my time. So all my time on the side was spent scoring anything I could get my hands on,” she said. It wasn’t an overnight leap to her milestone with Spirit Untamed in 2021; rather, it was the result of years of gradual progress.
Along the way, Doherty scored smaller films, such as Keep the Change, which went on to win the Tribeca Film Festival. By 2019, she was able to focus full-time on composing, just as her career began to accelerate toward major studio projects.
Her portfolio since then has been filled with high-profile projects, including Disney’s Freakier Friday, starring Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis; Marvel Studios’ She-Hulk: Attorney at Law; Netflix’s Emmy-winning Blue Eye Samurai; Universal’s Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain; Sony/Hulu’s holiday hit Happiest Season; Focus Features’ The High Note; Amazon’s Undone; the Jurassic World short Battle at Big Rock; and more.
Looking back, Doherty credits Berklee Valencia for giving her the foundation she needed to step into the industry with confidence in the first place. The master program’s wide-ranging curriculum—from dramatic orchestration and conducting for scoring, to recording, editing and mixing techniques for film composers and even video game scoring techniques courses—gave her both the creative and technical tools to build a sustainable career. “I was a total nerd and just loved every minute of it,” she recalls. “It really set me up with the tools to go into the real world.”
Among her favorite projects is the comedy Freakier Friday, which marked her second time collaborating with director Nisha Ganatra. “When scoring comedy, I think having a sense of humor is so important. You have to understand the other person's sense of humor and then figure out how to translate that into music,” Doherty observed. “This project was especially rewarding because Nisha and I had worked together before, so we just hit the ground running.”
While scoring remains her main focus at the moment, Doherty also recently worked as an orchestrator on Lady Gaga’s album Chromatica with composer Morgan Kibby. “My job was to make sure the musicians had everything they needed, conduct the session, and shape it into exactly what the artist envisioned it to sound like,” she explained.
“Whether it’s a pop album, a film, or a TV series, it all comes down to the same thing: translating emotion and feeling into music.”
While orchestrating means preparing articulations and dynamics, conducting the musicians, and shaping the sound into what the artists envisioned, by contrast, scoring involves building those musical ideas from scratch. Yet, to Doherty, the essence of both roles is the same: capturing and communicating emotion so that it resonates with the listener.
This ability to translate feeling through her music has earned her significant industry recognition, including nominations from the International Film Music Critics Association for “Breakthrough Composer of the Year” and “Best Original Score for an Animated Feature” for Spirit Untamed in 2022.
Doherty also points to the connections she made at Berklee Valencia that helped her reach those heights in her career. “The various professors with whom I’m still in touch and the guest speakers who came through—whether from Boston or across Europe—were amazing,” she said. These relationships that, early on, offered her mentorship and guidance became part of the professional network she continues to rely on in her career today.
Reflecting on her path, the established Irish composer emphasizes persistence and building a unique artistic vision. “I’ve been in LA for 11 years now, and it’s been about putting one foot in front of the other, even when you don’t know where it will lead. Early on, I said yes to everything to build my credits. Over time, you can be choosier.” Her advice for future composers: “Try to establish your 'thing,' what it is that makes your music stand out from the crowd. You won’t always have the opportunity to use it but, over time, it will hopefully seep through and become what you’re known for. And try to find a learning opportunity in every experience along the way.”