Fil Eisler

Composer of Netflix’s Outer Banks & Lakewood

Courtesy of Subject

Fil Eisler is one of today’s busiest and most diverse film composers, with projects that range from big studio action pieces and comedies to gritty independent films and hit television shows. He has been nominated for and been the recipient of numerous awards including the World Soundtrack Awards New Discovery, SXSW Best Soundtrack Award, and multiple BMI Awards. Eisler’s ability to understand directors’ musical intent and his flexible approach to scoring has led to numerous collaborations with some of Hollywood’s most accomplished creatives, including Lee Daniels, Marti Noxon, Catherine Hardwicke, Ben Falcone, and Phillip Noyce, whose thriller feature film “Lakewood,” starring Naomi Watts, recently premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to wide acclaim.

Eisler, a Czech-born, English-raised composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, has worked with ensembles of all shapes and sizes to help bring his scores to life. Variety described his music as “smoky, elaborate film noir-inspired compositions,” while Beatweek Magazine praised him for making “beautiful music” that “…almost acts as another character further enveloping the audience in its grasp.” 

Eisler’s inventive scores and signature themes enliven some of TV’s most popular series and notable films. His tension-filled orchestral cues for Fox’s Golden Globe-nominated drama series “Empire” and Sony’s action thriller “Proud Mary,” provide a powerful contrast to his integrated electronic and orchestral arrangements for Netflix’s sci-fi thriller “The Titan,” and provocative music for Lifetime’s Peabody-winning series “UnReal.”

He also composed the main title music for Amazon’s critically acclaimed “The Romanoffs.” Recently in television, Eisler has been scoring two quite different series for Netflix now in their second seasons, “Biohackers,” a German-produced action/suspense series, and the massively popular youth-oriented Netflix series “Outer Banks”. Last fall he scored the HBO Max premiere feature, “Super Intelligence,” starring Melissa McCarthy, and recently teamed up with them again on the feature “Thunder Force” for Netflix. This heavy-metal/orchestral hybrid score features guest instrumentalists Scott Ian (Anthrax) and Dave Lombardo (Slayer/Suicidal Tendencies). Together with vocals from Lzzy Hale (Halestorm) and Corey Taylor (Slipnot), Fil and this supergroup recorded the eponymous title song for the feature as well. 

Eisler’s music for Showtime’s Emmy-winning “Shameless” earned him the BMI Film and TV Award. The same year, he also won the BMI Award as both the composer and conductor for ABC’s breakout hit drama “Revenge.” Eisler also composed the main title theme and acted as co-composer and music director for the Peabody-winning documentary, “Newtown,” for which he organized and led an all-star line-up of over a dozen Hollywood composers who each donated a piece of music for the film. 

In 2008, Eisler was invited to participate in the prestigious Sundance Film Composer’s Lab and his projects have garnered critical acclaim on the film festival circuit ever since. As part of his ongoing commitment to independent film, he returned to Sundance in 2011 with the Inupiaq-themed thriller “On the Ice,” scored the Sundance-backed documentary “Whatever It Takes” and Jonathan van Tulleken’s BAFTA-nominated horror thriller “Off Season.” Eisler won the Best Film Score Award for his work on Robbie Pickering’s “Natural Selection” at the 2011 SXSW Film Festival. The film was the most decorated of the festival, also winning the Grand Jury and Audience Awards. He continued his work with Pickering on the 2015 Sony feature “Freaks of Nature. and was represented at the 2017 festival with Marti Noxon’s To The Bone (Netflix) and at the 2020 festival with the documentary “Us Kids.” 

Eisler’s credits further include three films for Warner Bros., the comedy “Life of the Party,” the hilarious film reboot of “CHIPS,” and the People’s Choice Awards-nominated “How To Be Single.” Eisler has scored several shows across multiple genres including AMC’s twisted drama, “Dietland” and Bravo’s hit comedy series “Girlfriends’ Guide To Divorce.” Fil lives in Los Angeles with his one lovely wife, two charming kids, and three badly-behaved dogs.

Watch the trailer for Netflix’s Outer Banks.

This episode of The Pop Disciple Podcast is hosted by Paul Goldowitz.

Production, Editing, Mixing, Mastering | Paul Goldowitz
Select Cues Throughout Episode | Fil Eisler
The Pop Disciple Podcast Theme and Outro Music | Paul Goldowitz

Special thanks to Fil Eisler and Charlie Sehres.