Daniel Licht

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title: "Daniel Licht" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1957-births", "2017-deaths", "american-film-score-composers", "american-male-film-score-composers", "american-television-composers", "american-video-game-composers", "deaths-from-cancer-in-california", "hampshire-college-alumni", "american-male-television-composers", "musicians-from-detroit", "silent-hill"] topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Licht" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist"]

Field	Value
name	Daniel Licht
image	Dan Licht by Gage Skidmore.jpg
caption	Licht at San Diego Comic-Con, 2011
birth_date
death_date
death_place	Topanga, California, U.S.
genre	Film score
occupation	Film composer
years_active	1988–2017
::

| name = Daniel Licht | image = Dan Licht by Gage Skidmore.jpg | imagesize = | caption = Licht at San Diego Comic-Con, 2011 | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = Topanga, California, U.S. | genre = Film score | occupation = Film composer | years_active = 1988–2017

Daniel Licht (March 13, 1957 – August 2, 2017) was an American soundtrack composer and musician, best known for writing the score of Showtime TV drama series Dexter.

Life and career

Licht grew up in suburban Detroit and attended the Roeper School, as well as summer school at Berklee College of Music in Boston. He started playing music at the age of eight with his first instrument being the clarinet. He took up the guitar four years later. He began his musical career while still in high school playing guitar with a small jazz ensemble at clubs in the area. Following high school graduation, he attended Hampshire College in Massachusetts and graduated in composition, jazz and world music. Licht moved to New York City and established himself as a musical artist within the Lower East Side music scene. He would travel to Germany, the Netherlands and Northern Europe to perform and compose music for theatre and dance companies. He created scores for such companies as Mercedes-Benz, Sony and AT&T.

He then moved to Los Angeles and pursued a career in film scoring, at the suggestion of his former classmate, Christopher Young. His first major project was the 1991 feature film Children of the Night. His composition earned him his first soundtrack CD release.

Licht scored all seasons of Dexter, which he considered to be one of his "more visible projects", but was reluctant to refer to it as his big break.

In 2012, Licht took over from Akira Yamaoka as the main composer of the Silent Hill video game series; he retained this position until 2015, when Konami decided to shift away from the home console video game industry. He also composed the soundtrack for all three games in the Dishonored series (2012-2017).

Licht died at the age of 60 from sarcoma at his home in Topanga, California, in August 2017. The third Dishonored game, Death of the Outsider, released shortly after his death and was dedicated to his memory.

Licht was assisted by his nephew Jon for his work on Dexter, Dishonored, and Silent Hill.

Works

Film

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Year	Title	Notes
1991	Children of the Night
1992	Final Embrace
1992	Amityville: It's About Time
1992	Severed Ties
1992	Inside Out III
1992	Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice
1992	Inside Out IV
1993	Acting on Impulse
1993	Ticks
1993	Where Are We? Our Trip Through America
1993	Amityville: A New Generation
1993	A Girls' Guide to Sex
1994	The Hard Truth
1995	Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest
1995	Zooman
1996	Woman Undone
1996	Hellraiser: Bloodline
1996	The Winner
1996	Thinner
1996	Bad Moon
1998	The Patron Saint of Liars
1998	Brave New World
1998	Legion of Fire: Killer Ants!
1998	Permanent Midnight
1998	Thirst
1999	Splendor
1999	Don't Look Under the Bed
1999	Execution of Justice
2000	Cabin by the Lake
2000	Hendrix
2001	Anatomy of a Hate Crime
2001	Cowboy Up
2001	Soul Survivors
2001	Off Season
2002	Video Voyeur: The Susan Wilson Story
2004	ABC's of Newborn Baby Care
2004	King Solomon's Mines
2005	Icon
2008	The Memory Keeper's Daughter
2008	Gym Teacher: The Movie
2010	Dumbstruck
2010	Wake
2016	Ghostmates
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Television series

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Year	Title	Notes
2003	Oliver Beene
2005–2006	Jake in Progress
2005–2006	Kitchen Confidential
2006–2013	Dexter
2008	Cashmere Mafia
2009	Maneater
2010	Romantically Challenged
2011–2012	Humsafar	Pakistani serial; Uncredited; Some of the Dexter score is used, most likely in an unofficial capacity.
2011–2013	Body of Proof
2012	Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23	Pilot episode only
2013	Deception
2014–2015	The Red Road
2016	Guilt
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Video games

::data[format=table]

Year	Title	Notes
2012	Silent Hill: Downpour
2012	Dishonored
2012	Silent Hill: Book of Memories
2016	Dishonored 2
2017	Dishonored: Death of the Outsider
::

References

References

1. Folmann, Troels. (December 2012). "Interview with Daniel Licht".
2. "'Dexter' Composer Daniel Licht Dead At 60".
3. Licht, Daniel. "Dan Licht biography". DanLicht.com.
4. Mermelstein, David. (October 2, 2010). "Composer brings dexterous touch to 'Dexter'".
5. Barnes, Mike. (August 4, 2017). "Daniel Licht, Composer on 'Dexter,' Dies at 60".
6. Burlingame, John. (August 4, 2017). "Daniel Licht, 'Dexter,' 'Children of the Corn' Composer, Dies at 60".
7. "jonlicht.com".
8. "Daniel Licht Composer Credits".
9. Pera, Delio. (November 19, 2012). "Interview: Daniel Licht".
10. Donnelly, Joe. (August 4, 2017). "Daniel Licht, the Dexter and Dishonored composer, dies at 60".
11. (January 26, 2018). "Dishonored: Death of the Outsider Game Audio Review".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::