Janal Bechthold

Janal Bechthold is a Canadian Screen Music Award-winning composer specializing in film, TV, games, & interactive media. Known for weaving playful and dark moods with intelligence and emotional maturity, her work has been nominated for three Canadian Screen Awards. In 2022 Janal received a Canadian Screen Music award and two other nominations. She also received a Hollywood Music in Media Award nomination for No Reason to Apologize: The Resilient Legacy of Viola Desmond which she co-wrote with long-time collaborator La-Nai Gabriel.

Janal’s music can be heard on Apple TV+, Lifetime, PBS, CBC, CTV, TSN, and Discovery. You can also hear her projects screened at notable festival such as SXSW, Hot Docs, IDFA, Whistler Film Festival, NY Horror, LA Shorts, Santa Barbara Film Festival, and used as testimony at the United Nations and the Supreme Court of India. Janal founded Toronto Women Composers and is the former 2nd Vice President and Chair of the Women Composer Advisory Council to the Screen Composers Guild of Canada. She served on the Board of Directors of the SOCAN Foundation and spearheaded the research report Gender in the Canadian Screen Composing Industry.