Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tammy Ari. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Tammy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Although I have a unique affinity with most of the Film and TV projects I’ve worked on as Composer, scoring the PBS Nature Series, “In Her Nature” has been one of the highlights of 2025.

PBS Nature’s groundbreaking series, “In Her Nature” shines a spotlight on the fearless women who, against all odds, protect the wildlife of our world. Combined with breathtaking cinematography, frequently featuring rare or first-time filmed animal behaviors on film, the series captures powerful conservation efforts and solutions in the most perilous habitats through the lens of an all-female, award-winning production team.

What these women conservationists do is incredibly powerful and requires an immense amount of tenacity, grit, and bravery. Therefore, it was truly humbling to bring their sound world to life through this score.

Also, this particular production was 100% women-led which is quite rare to see in our industry. Moreover, our show creators, Jocelyn Stokes and Katie Schuler did such a magnificent job of bringing together a team of stellar film creatives to bring “In Her Nature” to life. They led the project in such an inspiring and authentic way that I felt personally compelled to dive deeper into the conservation efforts that were highlighted through the show.

Composing the score for the “In Her Nature” series was not just about having a creative music experience — it was an immersive learning experience.

You can watch “In Her Nature” on all PBS platforms: https://www.pbs.org/show/nature/collections/in-her-nature/

The Original Soundtrack for “In Her Nature” will be released on June 17, 2025: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1IHXs0kgsVDD26LZxluEfK?si=r6oOUDSuRCmFXAa7O8BTyw

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Thanks to my grandmother’s passionate welcome to the piano, music was the first language I spoke. With roots of being a classically trained pianist from the age of 3, performing from the age of 5, and learning under world renowned concert pianist, Ronald Farren-Price, there is no question that this grounding has shaped the sonic space that I create as Film & Television Music Composer today.

However, through my voyages into other instruments (violin, voice, saxophone & guitar) and worlds as an electronic songwriter-producer, my compositions have taken on a unique tonal character that mesh the best of organica x electronica.

As a composer, I published my first work, Crocodile River nationally (ANZCA Music Magazine) at the age of 8. Then ironically, my ‘first gig’ and official foray into the motion picture space was when I got the opportunity to compose for Jimmy Barnes’, My First Gig (Max Channel).

In 2019, I relocated to Los Angeles and worked directly for Hans Zimmer’s protege, Michael A. Levine, where she assisted him on Siren, Season 1 (Disney) and The Son, Season 2 (AMC).

Since that point, I’ve worked independently as a freelance composer with globally renowned production houses such as Quincy Jones Productions, Remote Control Productions, and have also collaborated with The DA’s Office, Hyperballad Music, and Cleod9 Music.

To date, I’ve had the privilege of scoring a gamut of projects including the award-winning In Her Nature (PBS), For Winter (National Geographic), Drug Lords: The Takedown (National Geographic), Tripped Up (Lunch Hour Productions), The Australian Wars (Blackfella Films), Moon Rock for Monday (Lunar Pictures), Stars on Mars (Eureka Productions), and more.

My compositions have also led me to collaborate with acclaimed composers such as Jacob Collier (Reflection: A Walk with Water) and Kris Bowers (Dreaming Freedom – where I received a Hollywood Music In Media Award Nomination in 2024).

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Moving to Los Angeles definitely came with both joys and challenges! I remember my mindset when moving here was that I was starting my career again from ground zero. The film music world in the United States is just on a completely different level to Australia, and so I was happy to be humble about it and accept the fact that I would need to take my time to learn the ropes here.

Before I made the move, I booked a trip to Los Angeles to scope out the scene. Funny enough, I knew no-one in the industry in Los Angeles! So my main aim was to just have coffee with composers, to make friends and understand their journey. I remember prior to the trip I sent my showreel and resume to 80 composers, and only 4 responded. I will always be incredibly grateful for those 4 composers who took the time to meet with me and open up about their unique experiences in the industry. The conversations had little gems of wisdom that I still lean on to this day.

Michael A. Levine who was one of Hans Zimmer’s proteges at Remote Control Productions, was one of the 4 composers who responded. Fast forward many months later, Michael gave me the opportunity to interview for a Mentorship position which instigated my move to Los Angeles. I will forever be grateful to Michael for this opportunity, for sharing his wisdom, and for giving me a launching pad to get started over here.

Then after finishing my mentorship program, In November 2019, Ashley Irwin (President of the Society of Composers and Lyricists) had selected me for a Screen Scoring workshop that was run by my Australian PRO, APRA AMCOS. Having this opportunity was a monumental moment, because unknown to me, many of the roads that led to me getting the work I have today can be traced back to this workshop. It’s actually quite mind blowing! At the time of the workshop, I remember just being happy to be there, to learn from people that were vastly more experienced than me, to make great friendships, and to just have fun creating music together.

Then in 2020 COVID hit!! And like for many of us, it kind of felt like everything I was starting to build here rapidly dissolved. However, I was still so grateful for the opportunity to be in Los Angeles, that I just put my head down and found other ways to make life work over here. One aspect I also dove into was nerding out on watching a lot of YouTube videos to try and better understand my plugins, mixing and mastering tools. I also watched countless Composer interviews and spent time studying film scores. I feel like this time of getting deep into this learning experience really set me up for where I am today. I still to this day have a ritual of learning a plug-in per week!

So in a nutshell, navigating Los Angeles has taught me a few things: be kind to people and make genuine connections without the intention of getting work; in the times where there is no work, just keep learning and mastering what you do; put yourself in new environments like film composing workshops where you can get inspiration through collaboration!

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I’ve always believed that our gift as musicians is to be a vehicle to help highlight important stories. Therefore, I have a personal mission to always keep myself in check, that I’m not just creating music for myself, but in fact to have an impact in my community — even if it’s in a small way.

From a young age, my Grandma and parents always instilled the importance of harnessing our own personal gifts to play our small part in making a difference in our community. We would play music in retirement homes and shelters for the homeless. And then in my 20’s I traveled to countries like Cambodia to teach music to kids who came from families who never had the resources to access instruments or learn music. The music program was also developed to help them learn math, english and other school subjects. Just seeing how music would uplift all of these people, educate, and inspire, really made me realize that music was something that was beyond ‘myself’ and that it can be a powerful tool for change.

Since my teenage years, I also volunteered and then went on to work in a professional capacity with organizations who help survivors of modern slavery. It has always been so crazy to me that in our modern world, you can still buy a life for a price and that they have to endure such harrowing injustices.

I’ve always had a desire where I could bring together what I love (music), and connect it to raising awareness about modern slavery. This is what led me to start xPropelr, an organization with a mission to inspire creatives to fight the cycle of injustice.

In a nutshell, my mission is to connect music to alleviate injustice.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tammyari.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tammyari/

Image Credits

Photographer: Anna Azarov