Steven Argila

Steven Argila Composer/Producer/Songwriter Legendary For Monster High

 to a family of Italian-American bricklayers, Steven’s musical life began at the age of seven when his parents received the unlikely gift of a home organ. By the age of 10, he was winning regional and national competitions, where he was recognized for his improvisational abilities. Steven was accepted into the Pre-College Division of The Juilliard School at14, and was later awarded a full scholarship to the school’s Bachelor of Music program. While at Juilliard, Steven studied organ and piano performance, orchestration, composing, and conducting. He played recitals at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center and St. Patrick’s Cathedral, among other New York venues, and spent summers as musical director for the Williamstown Theatre Festival cabaret, among the youngest ever hired for that position.

After graduation, Steven moved to Los Angeles, where he continued working as a performer and musical director around the country. As organist at Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church for years, he played numerous festivals and concerts in addition to regular services there. Steven also taught music theory at the Harvard-Westlake School, accompanied numerous choirs, and performed in Los Angeles, New York, England, and New Zealand. Steven was a frequent composer and musical director for Tim Robbins’ theater troupe The Actors’ Gang and for productions at the Yale Rep, the Mark Taper Forum, and Cornerstone Theater Company.



 numerous feature films, including Paul Reiser’s comedy The Thing About My Folks, the animated feature Scooby-Doo Pirates Ahoy, the award-winning political mockumentary Memron, and director David Roy’s debut feature film Madsong, about which the Los Angeles Times said, “the film’s beguiling look and shifting moods have been enriched by Steven Argila’s shimmering score.” Steven has scored numerous independent films, including Sons of Thunder, Phone Tag, The Drive, The Spirit of Peace, Under the Blue, Snowfall and The Wizard of Id. His TV projects include the NBC comedy “The Paul Reiser Show,” three seasons of the TBS series “10 Items or Less,” and pilots for CBS (“Atlanta”), FOX (“Invincible” and “Team McPherson”), and Nickelodeon (“I Did Not Know That”). His music has also been featured on “CSI” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” Among Steven’s recent animation work is the wildly popular “Monster High” series of webisodes and television specials for Nickelodeon.

Expanding his musical horizons, Steven produced two recordings with the London Symphony Orchestra and London Voices of classical compositions by L.A. composer Nick Strimple, as well as Julia Fordham and Paul Reiser’s album “Unusual Suspects,” which was recorded entirely at 88Keys Music, his Silver Lake studio