San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) took over the San Diego Convention Center and Gaslamp District from July 25-28th. This convention ignites with panels and presentations across multiple genres of fandom. Attendees hear directly from the actors, creators, and industry titans themselves as they spill secrets about upcoming projects and reveal behind-the-scenes magic. Among these panels was “5th Annual Hollywood Game Changers: A Conversation with the Women Behind Popular Film and TV Projects.” Joy Ngiaw, composer for the Wondla series, was one of the remarkable women on the “Hollywood Game Changers” panel. We spoke with her about her journey through music and composing for animation.

Interview with Joy Ngiaw at San Diego Comic-Con

Joy Ngiaw is a television and movie composer, who most recently composed the beautiful soundtrack for Apple TV’s Wondla series. She has been playing classical piano since she was 6 years old and found herself making up her own songs.

Ngiaw explains that she wasn’t aware that her improv work was composing.

I realized I wanted to be a composer when I start not practicing my music, but I want to start improving. And I didn’t know that was composing until, like, high school. My teacher came in and was like, “I think you should try composing because that’s what you’re doing.”

Furthermore, Ngiaw has been scoring for Skydance Animation for some time. Most of her composition work is for animated content, such as short films and series. When she was approached for Wondla, Ngiaw was thrilled to take on the project. Wondla is a series based on Tony DiTerlizzi’s books, The Search for Wondla.

“I was really thrilled because it follows a female protagonist,” she explains. “And she’s kind of finding home. She’s finding herself, and I really resonate with the themes. And I really wanted to be part of something like that.”

She ends the interview by saying she would love to score music for something like Alice in Wonderland. Fantasy and wonderment is a world she is familiar with and wants to explore more.