Early life and education
Simonsen was born in St. Louis, Missouri.1 He began playing piano by ear at an early age and grew up surrounded by music in the family home; his grandmother was a voice teacher.1 He went on to study music at Southern Oregon University, the University of Oregon, and Portland State University.1
Career
Simonsen's first feature scoring credit was the independent film Westender in 2003.1 Beginning in 2004 he worked closely with composer Mychael Danna, providing additional music and arrangements on a number of films, an apprenticeship that helped establish him in the Los Angeles scoring community.1 In 2009 The Hollywood Reporter named him one of "15 Composers Primed to Take Their Place on the A List."1
Over the following years he built a wide-ranging filmography, frequently collaborating with directors Marc Webb, Julia Hart, Jason Reitman, Shawn Levy, Darren Aronofsky, and the directing duo Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman. His notable scores include (500) Days of Summer (2009), The Age of Adaline (2015), Gifted (2017), The Only Living Boy in New York (2017), Tully (2018), Love, Simon (2018), The Front Runner (2018), The Way Back (2020), The Adam Project (2022), and The Whale (2022). On television he scored the CBS comedy Life in Pieces across its run from 2015 to 2019.
In 2024 he reached his largest audience yet with the Marvel Studios film Deadpool & Wolverine, reuniting with director Shawn Levy, and the same year he co-composed It Ends with Us with Duncan Blickenstaff and scored Dan Levy's Good Grief. In 2025 he composed the score for the Pixar animated feature Elio.1 Beyond film, Simonsen released his debut solo album, Rêveries, through Sony Masterworks on September 6, 2019.2 His work has drawn nominations from the World Soundtrack Awards, the International Film Music Critics Association, the Hollywood Music in Media Awards, and the Indiana Film Journalists Association.1
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)
Simonsen composed the original score for Ghostbusters: Afterlife, directed by Jason Reitman and produced by his father Ivan Reitman, who had directed the first two films. Rather than discard the franchise's musical heritage, Simonsen built his score in dialogue with it. He has said he drew inspiration from the wider canon of 1980s family-adventure films such as The Goonies, E.T., and Stand By Me, matching the movie's small-town, coming-of-age tone while still answering to the comedy-horror legacy of the original.3
The score deliberately reaches back to the sound of Elmer Bernstein's 1984 original. For the "Mini-Pufts" cue, Simonsen used a synth patch from the same Yamaha DX7 synthesizer heard in the first film, layered with twinkling percussion.4 He also brought in the ondes martenot, the early electronic instrument central to Bernstein's 1984 score, performed by Cynthia Millar, the same player who performed it on the original soundtrack.5 The connective tissue extends to the franchise theme as well: while Ray Parker Jr.'s "Ghostbusters" song appears in the film via a new recording by the Menahan Street Band staged as a vintage 45 the children discover, that pop element sits alongside Simonsen's underscore.6
The Ghostbusters: Afterlife Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released digitally by Sony Classical on November 19, 2021, with a 25-track listing, followed by a CD edition on November 26, 2021.7 A limited-edition "Muncher" colored vinyl pressing arrived in June 2022,8 and a "Stay Puft Marshmallow" vinyl re-release was offered for pre-order beginning November 22, 2024.9
For the 2024 sequel Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, the score duties passed to Italian composer Dario Marianelli,10 so Afterlife stands as Simonsen's sole Ghostbusters scoring credit to date.
For prop builders and fans who chase film accuracy down to the instrument level, the most interesting detail of Simonsen's Afterlife work is its hardware lineage: the reused DX7 synth voice and the returning ondes martenot performer tie the new score's texture directly back to the gear behind the 1984 sound. The soundtrack remains in print across digital, CD, and collector vinyl pressings for fans assembling a complete franchise music shelf.
References
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
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Wikipedia, "Rob Simonsen," accessed June 13, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Simonsen
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Sony Music Masterworks, "Composer Rob Simonsen Releases Debut Solo Album REVERIES," accessed June 13, 2026, https://sonymusicmasterworks.com/composer-rob-simonsen-releases-debut-solo-album-reveries/
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Nerdist, "GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE Composer Talks '80s Influences and Legacy" (November 2021), https://nerdist.com/article/ghostbusters-afterlife-score-composer-rob-simonsen-interview-80s-influences/. Simonsen cites E.T., Back to the Future, Explorers, Gremlins, Cocoon, Flight of the Navigator, and other 1980s family-adventure scores as formative influences; this source confirms the E.T. reference and the broad Amblin-era influence but does not name The Goonies or Stand By Me by title.
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Looper, "What You Didn't Realize About The Music In Ghostbusters: Afterlife" (November 2021), https://www.looper.com/665983/what-you-didnt-realize-about-the-music-in-ghostbusters-afterlife/. Simonsen described the Mini-Pufts cue as "one of the most fun cues to write," using "a synth sound from the legendary DX7 synthesizer, used in the original," layered with twinkling percussion and the ondes martenot. See also Spitfire Audio interview: Simonsen states "That was the only synth that we used. In fact, I pretty much used exclusively the patches that were in the original," https://composer.spitfireaudio.com/en/articles/rob-simonsen-on-answering-the-call-to-score-ghostbusters-afterlife
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/Film, "The Ghostbusters: Afterlife Score Brought Back A Key Member Of The Original Orchestra For A Certain Haunting Sound [Exclusive]" (November 2021), https://www.slashfilm.com/679624/the-ghostbusters-afterlife-score-brought-back-a-key-member-of-the-original-orchestra-for-a-certain-haunting-sound-exclusive/. Simonsen: "The woman who played for many of Elmer's scores and who played the Ondes on 'Ghostbusters' is named Cynthia Millar, and she's still around. We brought her into the studio in London." Spitfire Audio interview corroborates she was "recorded remotely at Abbey Road," https://composer.spitfireaudio.com/en/articles/rob-simonsen-on-answering-the-call-to-score-ghostbusters-afterlife
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Following the Nerd, "Ghostbusters: Afterlife to feature unique new version of Ray Parker Jr.'s original movie theme," accessed June 13, 2026, http://www.followingthenerd.com/movies/ghostbusters-afterlife-to-feature-unique-new-version-of-ray-parker-jnrs-original-movie-theme/. Menahan Street Band founder Thomas Brenneck describes recording a 1960s-style version of the Ghostbusters theme for the film, intended to sound like an old 45 rpm single that predates the 1984 Ray Parker Jr. recording.
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Wikipedia, "Ghostbusters: Afterlife (soundtrack)," accessed June 13, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostbusters:_Afterlife_(soundtrack). Digital release November 19, 2021; CD release November 26, 2021; Sony Classical; 25 tracks; total runtime 70 minutes 11 seconds; conductor Anthony Parnther, Hollywood Studio Symphony.
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Ghostbusters News, "FIRST LOOK: Limited edition Ghostbusters: Afterlife vinyl LP revealed + PRE-ORDER NOW!" (March 24, 2022), https://ghostbustersnews.com/2022/03/24/first-look-limited-edition-ghostbusters-afterlife-vinyl-lp-revealed-pre-order-now/. The "Muncher" colored vinyl (crystal clear and transparent green), limited to 2,500 numbered copies, was released June 24, 2022, via Music on Vinyl.
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Ghostbusters News, "Ghostbusters: Afterlife score getting limited edition 'Stay Puft Marshmallow' rerelease" (November 14, 2024), https://ghostbustersnews.com/2024/11/14/ghostbusters-afterlife-score-getting-limited-edition-stay-puft-marshmallow-rerelease/. White 180-gram "Stay Puft Marshmallow" vinyl, limited to 1,000 numbered units, $47, via Music on Vinyl; expected ship date November 22, 2024.
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Wikipedia, "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (soundtrack)," accessed June 13, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostbusters:_Frozen_Empire_(soundtrack). Score by Dario Marianelli; released digitally March 22, 2024 via Sony Classical.
