Jed Danyel Kurzel (born 1976) is an Australian singer-songwriter-guitarist and film composer. He is a founding member of The Mess Hall (from 2001), a blues rock duo. His older brother Justin Kurzel is a film director and screenwriter.

Kurzel was born in c.1976 and, with his older brother Justin Kurzel (born c.1974), grew up in Gawler, South Australia.^[1][2] Their father, Zdzislaw Kurzel (1946–2006), was from Poland and had migrated to Australia in 1960, where he became a taxi driver.^[3][4][5] In the 1990s, Kurzel moved to Sydney, where Justin was studying at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA).^[2]

In 2001 Kurzel on lead vocals and guitar, Anthony Johnsen on drums and a bass guitarist formed a blues-rock group, the Mess Hall in Sydney – the bass guitarist soon left but was not replaced, they continued as a duo.^[6] Kurzel recalled "When the clubs asked us where our bass player was, we used to lie and say he was sick."^[6] Their debut album The Mess Hall was released in June 2003. In early 2004 Johnsen was replaced by Cec Condon on drums and vocals.^[7] Their third album Devils Elbow (October 2007) won the Australian Music Prize.^[8]

In 2000 Kurzel composed the film score for the short subject, Sammy Blue, at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, with Kim Farrant directing.^[9][10] He worked for Farrant again: providing the score for Naked on the Inside (2006), a feature film documentary on body image.^[10] In 2009 he composed music for Castor & Pollux, a short film, directed by Ben Briand.^[11]

In 2011 Kurzel provided the music score for the directorial debut feature film by Justin, Snowtown.^[12] At the APRA-AGSC Screen Music Awards of 2011 Kurzel won Feature Film Score of the Year.^[13] It was nominated for Australian Film Institute Award for Best Original Music Score.^[14] The related soundtrack album was nominated for ARIA Award for Best Original Soundtrack, Cast or Show Album in that same year.^[15][16]

Kurzel also wrote the scores for Son of a Gun, Slow West and the documentary All This Mayhem. In 2015, he worked again with his brother on Macbeth, followed by Assassin's Creed in 2016. He replaced Harry Gregson-Williams as the composer of Alien: Covenant.^[17]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jed Kurzel.

• Jed Kurzel at IMDb
• Jed Kurzel discography at Discogs