Michael Penn

Born in New York, Michael is an American singer/songwriter and composer. He is the son of actor/director Leo Penn and actress Eileen Ryan, and the brother of actors Sean Penn and the late Chris Penn. Penn’s first single, “No Myth,” from his debut album, March, brought him his share of attention as did his 1990 MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist. He followed-up with three additional CD releases and was praised for his song crafting skills.

Penn moved into film scoring after repeated requests from director Paul Thomas Anderson, who had listened to Penn’s Free-for-All CD extensively while writing his first feature, Hard Eight, and wanted Penn to score the film. Penn also scored Anderson’s follow-up, Boogie Nights, in which he appears briefly as a recording engineer. During the editing process of the film, Anderson directed a music video with Penn for the song “Try” from Resigned. Other films scored by Penn include The Anniversary Party, Suffering Man’s Charity, Melvin Goes to Dinner, the documentary The Comedians of Comedy, and The Last Kiss. Michael has scored two films at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival: Sunshine Cleaning and American Teen.