Ryder McNair is a versatile and collaborative film composer and musician. He has scored numerous feature and short films that have screened at international film festivals including South By Southwest, Tribeca, Slamdance, Seattle, Santa Barbara and Mill Valley.
Recently, Ryder worked with Daniel Wohl on Netflix's upcoming Orson Welles feature doc, They'll Love Me When I'm Dead, SXSW short film Come and Take It, and Dee Rees' Walmart ad, which premiered during the Academy Awards telecast. Recent feature Yosemite, directed by Gabrielle Demeestere and starring James Franco, won multiple festival awards before a successful theatrical run in 2016. Ryder scored SXSW Audience Award-winner Uncle Kent 2, which Indiewire lauded as a “defiantly unconventional crowdpleaser”, and went on to theatrical and online distribution by Factory 25.
Playing keyboard and organ, Ryder toured with Bonnie “Prince” Billy , and composed and arranged strings for The Letting Go, in particular “Love Comes To Me” and “Cursed Sleep”.
Ryder grew up in Toronto, Canada, on Brunswick Avenue. A multi-instrumentalist, studying piano since he was five and guitar since he was a teenager, Ryder received his BA in film scoring from Berklee College of Music and a Music Masters from USC's Screen Scoring program. He has worked in Toronto, New York and Los Angeles, and currently lives in LA.
“I was immediately struck by Ryder’s incredible love and knowledge of film, personal warmth and ability to turn thematic ideas into exciting musical suggestions.”
Interested in collaboration? Email ryder.mcnair@me.com