Janal Bechthold

Janal Bechthold is a Canadian Screen Music Award-winning composer specializing in film, TV, games, & interactive media. Known for weaving playful and dark moods with intelligence and emotional maturity, her work has been nominated for three Canadian Screen Awards: Marlene (Wendy Hill-Tout, starring Kristen Booth and Greg Bryk) nominated for Achievement in Music: Original Score, Company Town (CBC) and Cottagers and Indians (CBC) nominated for Best Original Score, Non-Fiction. In 2022 Janal received the Canadian Screen Music Award: Best Original Score for Interactive Media and a Hollywood Music in Media Award nomination for No Reason to Apologize: The Resilient Legacy of Viola Desmond (TEACH Media) alongside co-composer La-Nai Gabriel. Other notable work includes scoring all 52 episodes of the animated series Millie Magnificent (Nelvana), co-composing Daytime Emmy Award-winning Ghostwriter (Apple TV+) Jungle Ghost 1 & 2, scoring VR documentary The Choice, video game Terrorarium, and interactive graphic novels, Dystopia 2153 and 80 Degrees North. Her music can be heard on Apple TV+, Lifetime, PBS, CBC, CTV, TSN, Discovery, screened at notable festival such as SXSW, Hot Docs, IDFA, Whistler Film Festival, NY Horror, LA Shorts, Santa Barbara Film Festival, and used as testimony at the United Nations and the Supreme Court of India. Janal founded Toronto Women Composers, is the former 2nd Vice President and Chair of the Women Composer Advisory Council to the Screen Composers Guild of Canada, served on the Board of Directors of the SOCAN Foundation, and spearheaded the research report "Gender in the Canadian Screen Composing Industry”.