John Swihart

John Swihart is a film and television composer best known for his work on the quirky 2004 comedy "Napoleon Dynamite." The success of the film was a huge breakthrough for him and steered his career into new directions after years of working as an itinerant musician and a member of the playfully theatrical performance art Blue Man Group. His love of music began in childhood, playing saxophone and later guitar. He attended Indiana University for a time but left to enroll at Berklee College of Music in Boston. After years of working day jobs and performing at night, he auditioned successfully for Blue Man Group's Boston production. Eventually, he was asked to relocate to Las Vegas with the group. He later moved to Los Angeles and began to score music for small independent productions, one of them "Napoleon Dynamite." Unexpectedly, the film became a hit, winning a Satellite Award for best original score. Swihart quickly became an in-demand composer and has written music for numerous other movies, many of them comedies, including "Employee of the Month," "The Hammer," "The Brothers Solomon," and "Youth in Revolt."