TAURA STINSON
COMPOSER
Taura Stinson is an Academy/Golden Globe Award Nominated songwriter! Her ability to conclusively tell stories in a wide range of artistic mediums is a trait that she attributes to her roots in both Birmingham, Alabama and Oakland, California. Now based in Los Angeles, CA, Taura is continuing to write heart forward songs for tv & film, scripts, and books centered on social injustice, climate change, the power of love and the magic of manifestation. Early in her career, she served as A&R for Music World Records and their ‘BET Sunday’s Best’ Artists, garnering a Grammy win for her first project with gospel powerhouse LeAndria Johnson.
Her personal mantra ‘Believe-Become’ has been shared by millions of people around the globe, as has her music, which includes songs written for/with various artists including Kelis, Kanye West, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, Dr. Dre, Deborah Cox, Kelly Rowland and many more. Taura’s early accolades include a co-writing the Grammy nominated song ‘Show Me the Way’ for legendary band, Earth Wind & Fire. She also penned the #1 Billboard Dance hit, ‘I’m Leavin’ for Lisa Stansfield, and the cult classic ‘Gangsta Lean’ (aka This is for My Homies) by DRS, which was #1 on the Billboard R&B charts for six weeks, and #6 on The Hot 100 Charts. Her work on the song Destiny Child’s “Killing Time” on the Men in Black Soundtrack would be the building blocks to Taura’s lifework, which is crafting original songs for tv & film. She wrote and co-produced all the songs for the film ‘Black Nativity’ starring and featuring songs performed by Jacob Lattimore, Jennifer Hudson, Tyrese, Angela Basett, Forest Whittaker and Nas. She also wrote various songs for the blockbuster film “Rio 2”, including “Beautiful Creatures”. This song was also the official ‘closing song’ for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.
In 2018, she and longtime collaborator Raphael Saadiq & Mary J. Blige were nominated for an Oscar in the Best Original Song category for ‘Mighty River’ for the Netflix Film, Mudbound. That same year, she Raphael and Laura Karpman won a ‘Critics Choice Award’ for Best Song in a Documentary for ‘Jump’. A song performed by Cynthia Erivo in the documentary Fox film ‘Step’. Her recent work includes the Oscar shortlisted song ‘Just Look Up’ from Netflix film “Don’t Look Up”, with frequent collaborator Nicholas Britell and co-writers Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi. She and Nicholas also worked together on ‘Call Me Cruella” for Disney Plus, and ‘Don’t Slip Away’, performed by Paul Mescal for the Sony Classics Film, “Carmen”. Her other recent Disney Plus projects include ‘Nothing Without You’, performed by Brandy Norwood & her daughter Sy’rai for the re-boot of “Cheaper by the Dozen” and a big character performance number in the Emmy winning film “Better Nate than Ever” called “About to Go Awf”, both with Jon Levine. She and Raphael wrote the theme song “Moon Girl Magic” for Marvel’s Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur, as well as several other songs in the show. She has also written with Pharell Williamsfor the Amazon TV series, “Harlem”, and with Ali Shaeed and Adrian Younge for the ABC series, Reasonable Doubt. She also co-wrote the musical episode for Showtime’s The L-Word: Generation Q with composers Heather McIntosh & Allyson Newman. Recently, she also solely wrote various songs for the Apple TV Series “Central Park”
Taura’s non musical pursuits include her first independently published book, ‘100 Things Every Black Girl Should Know: For Girls 10-100’, which received the “In the Margins Award” for At-risk youth, presented by librarians across northern America. Taura’s second book, “100 Ways to Love Yourself: Inside and Out’ was released February 2020. It’s a modern self-improvement book where the teacher is also the student. She also Executive Produced “19Seventy Free”, a film that premiered at Tribeca in 2021, with the music of Darien Dorsey being the primary storyteller.
Taura is currently writing/composing for film/tv and experimenting with new ways to marry words and sounds in a way that uplifts, enlightens and empowers.