Charlie McCarron

Charlie McCarron is a film composer, songwriter, video producer, visual artist, and board game designer in Minnesota. He is the executive director of Film Score Fest and produced the podcast Composer Quest.

Composer Bio

Charlie McCarron has composed for numerous award-winning films and series, including Emmy-nominated Beneath the Ink, STARZ documentary Silicone Soul, the prestigious Alfred I. duPont-Columbia award-winning documentary Love Them First: Lessons from Lucy Laney Elementary by KARE 11, and Incompleteness, which was named “Best Series” in over 30 festivals.

Most recently, Charlie composed the score for the multi-award-winning animation LUKi & the Lights, which was one of seven animations curated by Whoopi Goldberg for the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival.

Charlie also writes folk songs, video game scores, and orchestral music. To open their 2021 season, the Minnesota Opera commissioned Charlie to compose Chim Lạc (Lost Bird) with writer and puppeteer Oanh Vu. In 2020, he Kickstarted the album 2020, featuring 20 Minnesota musicians recording from home during the pandemic. In 2018, Charlie was selected as a finalist in the Banaue International Music Composition Competition for his orchestral piece Balitúk: The Divided Child, traveling to the Philippines for a three-week immersion program in the mountain village of Banaue.

Charlie is the executive director of Film Score Fest, which has premiered over 100 new films with live scoring by an orchestra. For his podcast Composer Quest, Charlie crowdfunded a 2-month tour throughout the US, Australia, Taiwan, and Japan, interviewing and writing music with composers there. When he’s not making music, Charlie is usually drawing, editing videos, or creating board games in Minneapolis.

Board Game Design Bio

Charlie McCarron is a board game designer, developer, art director, and educator. His first major game Four Humours won 3rd place in the 2019 Cardboard Edison Awards and is published by Adam’s Apple Games. Charlie’s 18-card icebreaker game Guesswork won Button Shy’s Numbers on Cards Contest (Round 2) and is published by Button Shy Games. His word-building game Alphabet Stoop is published by Pops & Bejou Games.

Charlie also works as a designer and developer for Floodgate Games, and most recently designed the 30 unique modes in Skyrockets: Festivals of Fire.

In addition to designing and developing games, Charlie has taught Intro to Game Design at the University of Wisconsin–Stout. He also co-hosts the weekly podcast The Tabletop Takeaway.

As a composer, Charlie was inspired to create and kickstart The Troubadeck, a deck of cards designed to inspire songwriting. The deck and accompanying music games will be available on troubadeck.com in August 2024.

See Charlie’s games page for more of his published and upcoming games.