It's no secret that many aspects of the video game world are unfortunately male-dominated. That extends to video game music, where you must admit the majority of game composers you likely know are probably men, with legends like Nobuo Uematsu and Grant Kirkhope often topping lists of favorites.
No shade on those guys; they're fantastic composers. But what about the women in the field? Progress is being made in fixing that gap, but there's still a long way to go. Still, there are plenty of influential female video game composers out there, and you've most certainly heard and enjoyed their music.
9 Eímear Noone
Years Active |
2001-present |
---|---|
Best Known For |
World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor (2014) |
Irish composer Eímear Noone is one member of the video game music world whose influence transcends this particular genre. For starters, you'll likely recognize her compositions from the iconic MMORPG World of Warcraft, particularly its Warlords of Draenor expansion.
Beyond video game soundtracks specifically, Noone is an accomplished conductor as well. Aside from many gaming-related orchestral performances, she also made history in 2020 as the first female conductor to lead the orchestra at the Academy Awards.
8 Manami Matsumae
Years Active |
1987-present |
---|---|
Best Known For |
Mega Man (1987) |
While the Mega Man series has seen its share of iconic composers over the years like Takashi Tateishi in Mega Man 2 and Yasuaki Fujita in 3, it had to start somewhere. In this case, the games' characteristically amazing soundtracks began with the very first Mega Man thanks to composer Manami Matsumae.
Matsumae basically set the stage for the Mega Man sound, and the long-running Nintendo-hard series owes a lot to her. After returning to the series a few times, notably including Mega Man 10, she also contributed some tracks to the acclaimed indie classic Shovel Knight.
7 Yoko Shimomura
Years Active |
1988-present |
---|---|
Best Known For |
Kingdom Hearts series, Street Fighter 2 (1991) |
It's hard to make any list of influential video game composers without including Yoko Shimomura. If you've played video games, you've heard her music, and her recognizable sound resonates with players every time.

10 Video Games You Didn't Know Had The Same Composer
Music really brings a game to life, and these games unexpectedly feature the same composers.
Arguably her most famous work comes from the Kingdom Hearts series. But her career has spanned decades of truly legendary offerings, including Street Fighter 2, Super Mario RPG (and the Mario & Luigi series), Final Fantasy 15, and even Xenoblade Chronicles. "Iconic" doesn't even begin to describe Shimomura.
6 Jessica Curry
Years Active |
2008-present |
---|---|
Best Known For |
Dear Esther (2008), Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (2015) |
Indie games have become a bastion of shockingly good video game music in recent years, even as more mainstream titles continue cranking out the good stuff. Jessica Curry is a wonderful example of that, particularly with her pensive compositions in Dear Esther and rather more anxious work on the horror game Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.
Between that game and others, like Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Curry magnificently captures real emotion in her music. Just piano and some strings are all she needs to make you feel things you didn't expect from a game you probably got on sale. Conversely, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs will make you feel decidedly different.
5 Winifred Phillips
Years Active |
2005-present |
---|---|
Best Known For |
LittleBigPlanet series, Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation (2012) |
It can be nice to have a consistent composer throughout a series, a feat accomplished by the various LittleBigPlanet games on PlayStation consoles. They've had Winifred Phillips on soundtrack duty almost the whole time, up to and including Sackboy: A Big Adventure.

Every LittleBigPlanet Game, Ranked
These were the games that let your imagination run wild, so find out which LittleBigPlanet entry is the best!
Phillips deserves praise for how her music in those games dynamically meshes with the various sound effects going on, making the player feel even more immersed. But beyond that, she also boasts an extensive game music resume, including serving as lead composer for Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation.
4 Michiru Yamane
Years Active |
1988-present |
---|---|
Best Known For |
Castlevania series |
True icons never slow down. That can be said for Michiru Yamane, who has worked on the soundtracks for many Castlevania games including 1997's legendary Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and its predecessor, Castlevania: Bloodlines. But she's been around the series many times since.
Like the icon she is, Yamane continues to bring her epic and energetic sound to games beyond Castlevania like Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and 9 Years of Shadows (which she worked on with Manami Matsumae). Yes, her skills are uniquely perfect for metroidvanias, of course, but she also fits right in with her contributions to other genres like Skullgirls.
3 Lena Raine
Years Active |
2013-present |
---|---|
Best Known For |
Celeste (2018), Guild Wars 2 (2015) |
An important game like Celeste deserves nothing less than a soundtrack as poignant and satisfying as the game itself. Musical genius Lena Raine nailed it, and she's kept up her momentum ever since.

8 Short Games With Great Stories
Don't have time for long plot-driven games? Check out these short games with excellent stories.
Specializing in the kind of high-energy music that drives straight into the happy juice parts of your brain, Raine has also contributed her considerable songwriting talents to games like Minecraft and Astro Bot. But she's got range too, as seen from her more orchestral work in Guild Wars 2.
2 Megan McDuffee
Years Active |
2011-present |
---|---|
Best Known For |
River City Girls (2019), River City Girls 2 (2022) |
Megan McDuffee enjoys a musical career of her own outside of games, and when you listen to what she has to offer, you can see why. So her offerings in video games themselves tend to be the kinds of songs you could easily catch yourself jamming to in the car without worrying about what your passengers might think.
While she's worked on a few games, McDuffee is best known for her work on the soundtracks for nostalgic beat-em-ups River City Girls 1 and 2. You need your adrenaline pumping for games like these, and she does exactly that with her oddly comforting yet endlessly exciting electronic and synthwave-style backing tracks.
1 Soyo Oka
Years Active |
1988-1994 |
---|---|
Best Known For |
Super Mario Kart (1992), Pilotwings (1990) |
Not everybody needs an extensive resume to be a legend. Sometimes, all it takes is one project that hits so hard, that people are still covering it decades later. That's what Soyo Oka accomplished with her endlessly memorable soundtrack from Super Mario Kart.
Recent Mario Kart games have become a far cry from what she's done in terms of music. But between the instrumentation and compositions, Oka laid out on the SNES, players who grew up with Super Mario Kart will likely forever associate racing with those distinct organ and drum sounds.

10 Music Artists You Didn't Know Featured On Video Game Soundtracks
Video game soundtracks have never sounded so good.