Jessica Curry

Jessica Curry is an English composer, radio presenter and former co-head of the British video game development studio The Chinese Room. She won a BAFTA award in 2016 for her score for the video game Everybody's Gone to the Rapture and received an honorary doctorate from Abertay University in 2023.

She has also written and presented several national radio shows, including High Score for ClassicFM, Sound of Gaming for BBC Radio 3, Magic Classical and BBC World Service. She has written and hosted live concerts at venues such as the Royal Albert Hall and BBC Maida Vale.

When Dan Pinchbeck was developing his experimental video game Dear Esther he turned to his wife Curry to write a score. Thus Curry became the co-founder of The Chinese Room game studio.^[1]

Following the success of that game, The Chinese Room went on to develop Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs which Curry describes as her first "journey into interactivity." ^[1]

While Amnesia was in production, The Chinese Room received an approach from Sony Computer Entertainment's Santa Monica Studio to develop an exclusive game for them. Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, which had originally been envisioned as a PC release, subsequently became a PlayStation 4 exclusive.^[1] Curry describes Rapture as "the first time I would say that I wrote a truly interactive score".^[1]

In October 2015 Curry announced via her blog on The Chinese Room's website that, while she would remain a company director, she was lessening her creative involvement with the studio.^[2]

In April 2016, Curry won a BAFTA at the 12th British Academy Games Awards for her music on Everybody's Gone to the Rapture.^[3]

In 2018, in recognition of her outstanding contribution to music, along with her efforts in the promotion of games and game music within arts and culture and her dedication to making the industry a better place to work, she was awarded the Outstanding Contribution award by MCV Women in Games.^[4]

After her departure from The Chinese Room, Curry embarked on various other projects including a collaboration with poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy^[1] which saw poems by Duffy performed to music by Curry and others at Durham Cathedral in July 2016 as part of a centenary remembrance of the Battle of the Somme.^[5]

In October 2016 Curry's score to Dear Esther was performed live by a full orchestra at London's Barbican Centre to coincide with the release of the game for the PS4 and Xbox One consoles.^[6][7][8]

In January 2017, it was announced that Curry would present High Score, Classic FM's six-episode series on video game music.^[9][10] In October 2017 it was announced that Curry's show was renewed for another six episodes, starting 4 November.^[11]

Starting October 2019, Curry presented Sound of Gaming on BBC Radio 3, a weekly series on video game music.^[12][13]

In 2022 Curry's music rounded out the first ever Prom dedicated to games music.^[14]

In June 2025, Curry released Shielding Songs, an album mostly made up of new versions of her favourite pieces featuring the London Voices choir.^[15]

Curry and husband Dan Pinchbeck have been together since 2000. They are based in Brighton and have one child.^[8]

She is a fan of film director Peter Greenaway and his frequent collaborator, composer Michael Nyman.^[16]