Trent Reznor remains one of rock’s most unique artists. In recent years, his career has taken a very successful turn that few likely could’ve anticipated when Nine Inch Nails dropped their debut album, Pretty Hate Machine, in October 1989.

That turn? In-demand film and television score composer. (Seriously, we’re still kind of stunned by this career turn.)

When it comes to his score work, Reznor typically partners with Atticus Ross. Reznor and Ross have worked together since 2005, when Ross worked on the Nine Inch Nail album With Teeth. Ross became an official member of NIN in 2016.

The Reznor/Ross score pairing took off with a bang in 2010 when they composed the score to the David Fincher film The Social Network, which chronicled the founding and rise of Facebook and starred Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg.

Shortly after the award-winning success of The Social Network, Reznor and Ross began nabbing even more film and television score opportunities. The duo’s other credits include 2011’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, 2014’s Gone Girl, 2016’s Patriots Day, 2019’s Watchmen, 2020’s Soul and Mank, and 2023’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. Their latest work can be heard in 2024’s Challengers, starring Zendaya.

Frankly, the credits mentioned above only scratch the surface of the score work from Reznor and Ross, and as years go by, the duo will likely rack up even more credits. (As of publishing, there are three additional film projects yet to be released that feature their score work.)

Since 2010, Reznor and Ross have won a number of awards for their work. In fact, Reznor and Ross now only need to win a Tony Award in order to reach EGOT status.

Below, we offer a brief breakdown of the major awards that line their mantles for their score work. Call it a hunch, but they likely will be collecting more honors for years to come, which means we’ll be updating this list for years to come, too.

  • The Social Network

    As previously stated, The Social Network was Reznor and Ross’ first major score project, and it was quite fruitful. For their work, the duo won the Golden Globe for Best Original Score – Motion Picture in 2011. Months after that win, they won the Academy Award for Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score. From here, opportunities began to roll in.

  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

    Reznor and Ross’ next big score colaboration was with 2011’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, the film was an adaptation of the 2005 novel by Stieg Larsson. The film was a critical and commercial success making $232.6 million at the box office. As for Reznor and Ross, it won them the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media in 2013.

     

  • Watchmen

    Watchmen was Reznor and Ross’ second television score credit. (Their first was 2017’s The Vietnam War, a 10-part PBS docuseries directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick.) Watchmen was an HBO limited series released in 2019 starring Regina King. It was adapted from the 1986 DC Comics series of the same title. This netted Reznor and Ross a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited Series, Movie or Special (Original Dramatic Score).

  • Soul

    Finally (for now), there’s the 2020 Pixar film Soul. For this film, Reznor and Ross partnered with Jon Batiste. It was clearly a partnership for the ages. Together, they won three major awards: A Golden Globe for Best Original Score; a Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media; and an Academy Award for Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score.

    When they won the Golden Globe, Reznor said in his acceptance speech, “I think this is the first piece of art I’ve ever made in my life that I can actually show to my kids. So, thank you, Pixar.”

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