Meet the Composer Behind Your Favorite Cartoons: Sebastian Evans

What makes our favorite animated series so great? While many nerds will tell you it’s the artistic style, the relatable dialogue, or the engaging stories that cement shows like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ben 10: Omniverse, or Transformers: Animated as cartoon classics, these titles also have one other very important thing in common. Meet Sebastian Evans, one of the few Black composers in this field whose superpower is moving you to tears, sending shivers down your spine, and filling your heart with hope… all without you even realizing it. Black Nerd Problems: Tell us a little about yourself that we can’t find on your impressive IMDB page. Sebastian Evans: I started by watching movies. I went to see Return of the Jedi when I was six or seven, and it got to the part where [Admiral Ackbar] goes “It’s a trap!” and the music got big and I was like, “What’s that about?” I begged my parents for piano lessons, jazz band, musical theatre, anything that offered music. My first job was Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! for Disney. I’d met Ciro [Nieli] four years earlier in line for Phantom Menace. And I like legos. BNP: Do you identify as a nerd? Sebastian: Yeah (not by choice). I always have been and had nerd friends and done nerd things. BNP: What is it that draws you to scoring for animated works? Sebastian: It seems with the landscape now you can do a lot of exploring. I’ve always enjoyed animation and cartoons. Like watching Tiny Toons and Looney Tunes. That’s mostly the p…