Biography
Composer Helen Simmins-McMillin just feels lucky to be able to earn a living in music, and is grateful for the teachings of the many wonderful people she's met along the way. She's gotten to work on a lot of cool projects (and a few not so cool ones) including feature films, short films, plays, and is still a little astounded that her music can be heard on numerous television programs around the world every day.
Helen enjoys living in Little Rock, Arkansas, and is privileged to share her world with a wonderful husband and two generally well behaved and professionally adorable dogs. She has been to Hobbiton, loved living in the Los Angeles area for almost 30 years, and now enjoys the green forests of her birthplace (Arkansas) that surround her studio. You’re welcome to visit sometime.
Helen is a graduate of California State University, Long Beach, where she earned her Bachelors of Music with an Emphasis in Commercial Composition. She has studied with Jared Spears and John Prince. Following graduation she enrolled in UCLA's Film Scoring Extension Program where she won the BMI/Jerry Goldsmith Film Scoring Scholarship. She was selected as an intern for the Society of Composers and Lyricist's Mentorship Program where she studied with Alf Clausen (The Simpsons, Moonlighting,) Dan Foliart, (7th Heaven, 8 Simple Rules, Home Improvement,) and Jay Chattaway (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise.)
Helen's ability to write in a variety of musical genres has landed her a diverse array of projects including five feature films, numerous television programs, 16 short films, four plays, commercials, and two web series, music for most of which was written and recorded entirely in her own studio. In addition, she has written concert works, art songs, solo instrumental compositions and a few pop songs.
Feature Films
Dead Weight
The Book of Life (2019)
The Marriage of Charlie Johnson
The Freedom Fighters of NILI
Speedland
If
The Foot Man
Web Series
City Kitties
Chronic Misadventures of Slackers in Space
Television Shows
(additional music, as part of the DL Music Library)
Access Hollywood, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Biography, The Joe Schmo Show, E! True Hollywood Story, The Real JAG, Stealth and Beyond, Reliving History, Monster Machines, Modern Marvels, Adoption Tales, That's My Baby, Pet Story, Living Large, The Rob Nelson Show, Adoption Stories, Cities of the Underworld, Clean House, Desire American Heiress, Dog the Bounty Hunter, The Early Show, Fashion House, Inviting Disasters, It's Effin Science, Lifelines, Master Blasters, Motives and Murders, Myths and Legends, Nature Tech, National Geographic Presents, Planet's Best, Real Life, RuPaul's Drag Race, Secret Obsession Saints and Sinners, Seeing Stars, Stealth and Beyond, Sunset Tan, Trading Spaces, Unsung Hollywood, What History Forgot, Why I Ran, Wicked Wicked Games, Work Out, (And many, many more, I can't keep up with 'em…)
Saving the Endangered Species (Original Score)
Theater
Right Lies
This is Not A Pipe Dream
Puss 'n Boots
Androcles and the Lion
Short Films
Debbie Motors
Three Little Words
Disposable
Slightly Thicker than Water
Hatched
Seeking Salvation
Shell Game
Passion Fruit
Father Xmas
There's Something About Chad
Break A Leg
Emergence
Link
Time Bomb
Sunrise Over San Jacinto
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