Leo Birenberg is an American composer and orchestrator for film and television.
Born in Kentucky and raised in Chicago, Birenberg studied composition at NYU and USC. While there, he started composing his first scores in collaboration with his roommate, filmmaker Jeremy Reitz. His favorite score is from Out of Africa.
After graduating, he had a chance encounter with composer Christophe Beck, who ended up taking Birenberg on as a mentee. Under Beck's tutelage, Birenberg worked as the score coordinator on numerous large projects, including The Muppets, Pitch Perfect, Runner Runner, and Frozen. In 2014, Birenberg started composing additional music for Beck's films, including Muppets Most Wanted, Edge of Tomorrow, and Ant-Man.
In 2014, Birenberg also started composing his own original scores for television shows, including Next Time on Lonny, The Britishes, Big Time in Hollywood, FL, and the YouTube Red series Sing It!
In 2016, Birenberg received an email from producer Eric Appel, and asked to compose music for the then-upcoming FX series Son of Zorn. Upon approaching the series, he took the original up-beat synth-heavy score and replaced it with something that spanned a vast array of musical styles, sampling the styles of country music and church choirs. In 2017, Birenberg released a soundtrack for the show. That same year, Birenberg also started composing music for the Seeso original series Take My Wife. He also composed the score for the 2017 comedy F the Prom.
In 2018, Birenberg co-composed YouTube and Sony series Cobra Kai with composer Zach Robinson. They also scored the subsequent seasons through to season six. In addition, he scored the music for the DreamWorks Animation Television series ', Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous and '.
In 2019, Leo composed the music for Hulu's Pen15. He also recently scored Adult Swim's animated series Tigtone, Tribeca Film Festival selection Plus One, the Peacock series Twisted Metal, the Marvel Studios Animation series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, and the 2026 comedy film The Breadwinner.
Birenberg's score with Zach Robinson for ' won the 2023 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited or Anthology Series, Movie or Special (Original Dramatic Score). The duo also gained the following nominations:
Their music for Cobra Kai has had the following nominations: