About

Benson Lai has music placed in dozens of award winning international media projects around the world starring Emmy nominated actors and actresses seen on network television and streaming platforms such as Hulu, HBO, Fox, Disney Plus and Netflix. He’s had theatre premieres at the famous TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California which was the previous location of the Oscars; in addition, to famous venues like New York Times Square. Benson Lai’s soundtracks have been in a handful of films that have been placed in nearly 100 international film festivals in over 43 cities and 22 countries. These include film festivals in Los Angeles, California; New York, New York; Tokyo, Japan; Toronto, Ontario; Hong Kong, China; Singapore, Malaysia; Stockholm, Sweden; Las Vegas Nevada; Paris, France; San Francisco, California; Chicago, Illinois; Boston, Massachusetts; London England; Vienna, Austria; Berlin, Germany; Barcelona, Spain; Sydney, Australia; Prague, Czeh Republic; Kiev, Ukraine; Paris, France; Wallanchia, Romania; Rome and Vesuvius, Italy; Bali, Indonesia; Cairo, Egypt; Kerala, India; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Turkey.

His projects have been distributed on Amazon Prime Video USA, Vimeo and Youtube; furthermore, his music has been on ShortsTV and broadcasted on national television networks in the USA such as AT&T U-Verse, DirecTV, Google Fiber, Frontier Communications and Hotwire. Benson also has been interviewed by Indie Night Film Festival based in Los Angeles, California. As for traditional media he has been showcased in Los Angeles newspaper LA Sentinel.

Benson has worked with Los Angeles based award winning director featured on NBC and ABC, Sundance finalist Katrina Cebreiro on her film “Addict” starring Emmy nominated actress Danielle Vega from East Los High on Hulu, and Emilio Garcia-Sanchez from The Society on Netflix. The film is an official selection at one of the top 50 film festivals in the world, the Catalina Film Festival in California. It is also an official selection at the Big Apple Film Festival in New York hailed one of the best film festivals by CBS. Furthermore, it is an official selection at the 6th Annual Official Latino Film Festival sponsored by HBO Latino in Los Angeles; in addition, the film is an official selection at the premiere Latino festival, The New York Latino Film Festival. The film has been screened at the Indie Night Film Festival at the legendary TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California. The film is also a finalist at Hollywood Screenings Film Festival and Katrina won Best Director, Danielle Vega won Best Actress and Best Drama Short at the Independent Short Awards at the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival. He finished scoring her latest animation movie Forever Nester starring David Sasik, Kristen Daniels and Kelsey Redmond. The film has been official selections at numerous film festivals such as the Venice Short Film Awards and Indie Night Film Festival in Los Angeles, California. He completed scoring the soundtrack for David Sasik’s post apocalyptic web series Anza-Borrego which was also an Official Selection at Indie Night Film Festival for 2021.

His music has been featured in award winning Los Angeles film director Felicia Mead's The Overnight Stay starring Emmy Nominated Actor Melvin Jackson Jr. (The Wire on HBO), and Jasmine Nelson (Empire on Fox). It has been online distributed with Amazon Prime USA. This film has been official selections at film festivals such as the Los Angeles Cinefest, The Miami International Indiewise Film Festival, The American Tinted Rose Shorts Film Festival, and Las Vegas Indiewise Film Festival; in addition, the film was advertised on Steve Harvey’s national syndicated USA radio show The Steve Harvey Morning Show. Benson resumed his collaboration with Felicia Mead on her latest film "A Sort of Hunger" starring Jasmine Nelson (Fox’s Empire), Ed Gage (Disney’s The Mandalorian), and Nick La Croix (Jason Bourne). This film has been an official selection at the Hollywood Blood Horror Festival, Monsters of Horror Film Festival, Chainsaw Film and Game Festival, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat International Film Festival in Barcelona Spain, Brazil International Monthly Independent Film Festival, Phoenix Monthly Short Film Festival in Toronto Canada, and won Best Director at the Hatay Independent Film Festival in Turkey. He contributed to her latest film Perfect Ten starring Alex Jokic, Roxana Garcia, and Sara Dowling. This film has over 30+ film festival selection and awards on the international film circuit. This film was an official selection at the North Film Festival 2022 in Stockholm, Sweden and was nominated for Best Horror Short Film. It won Best Horror Short at the Hong Kong Indie Film Festival 2021, Best Horror Film at the Royal Wolf Film Awards in Los Angeles, California. A finalist at the Paris International Short Festival 2021. It also won Foreign Short Film Award, and Best Female Director at the Roshani International Film Festival in Maharashtra, India.

Currently Benson is supplying the soundtrack to her award winning film Within Oneself with over 20+ film festival selections and awards starring Atika Greene (HBO’s Insecure), Alex Jokic (Megan Thee Stallion and Marshmellow’s Bad Bitches Music Video), and Billboard Artist Aktion Jackson (#1 iTunes, and #15 on Billboard Music Artist). The film is winning multiple accolades in the international film festival circuit such as Best Screenwriter at the Onyko Film Awards, Semi Finalist at the Cyrus International Festival of Toronto, Official Selection at the Venice Shorts in California, Best Horror Screenplay and Official Selection at the Creepy Tree Film Festival, Best Short Script at the New Cinema Lisbon Monthly Film Festival in Portugal Spain, Semi-Finalist in The Flight Deck Film Festival, and Best Short Script at the LA Sun Film Fest. It won Best Short at the Monthly Indie Short Film Festival 2021. It won an award for Best trailer at the Oregon Scream Week Horror Film Festival 2022. Another award winner at the Dreamz Catcher International Film Festival Official Selection 2022 in West Bengal, India. Winner of Best Cult Movie at the Krimson Horyzon International Film Festival 2022. Semi – Finalist at the Phoenix Shorts Film Festival 2022 in Toronto, Ontario. Nominated for Best Horror at Beyond the Curve International Film Festival 2022 in Paris, France. The film also won Best Horror at the Hollywood On The Tiber Film Awards 2022 in Rome, Italy; furthermore, it was an official selection at the Tokyo International Monthly Film Festival 2022.

He is working with Dave Alvarez Studios (Disney, Looney Tunes, Warner Brothers) for his upcoming animation short The ChickenDuck Show. Benson also contributed music to award winning web series Knowledge Iz King based in New York directed by Talib Muhammad (Winner of Best Actor at the Sita Awards in New York by Ron Cox). His music has been in feature film "In The Minds of Men" directed by Sean Shing from San Francisco, California; furthermore, he has had music placed in almost a dozen films that include science fiction horror short Colonize directed by Royale Films from Liverpool, England, horror feature film Repugnalia directed by Neil Boultby from Alicante, Spain and action short Prime Vantage directed by Bobby Ryan from Vancouver, BC.

With his passion for videogames Benson provided music for a dozen videogame projects that include trailer music for Chilean developer A Fake Studio's latest psychological game; in addition, he provided music for Zombie Peace developed by Alabama, USA developer Games by Will. Music has also been written for Maid of Venia a Japanese rpg developed by USA developer Starving Lama Games and Stray Alloys from Co-op Legion Studios based in Brunei in Asia.

A member of SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada) Benson has been selected by Buzz Music in Los Angeles a hub featuring independent artists as a top 10 artist for 2019. Benson is a pianist that has graced multiple fashion and lifestyle magazines across Canada. He has been featured in Alberta’s top wedding & lifestyle magazine, Blush Magazine; in addition, Bridal Fantasy which is Western Canada's largest wedding magazine featured on newsstands at Chapters Indigo, Shoppers Drug Mart, Safeway and Sobeys; furthermore, he was featured in Toronto fashion magazine "A Story of Fashion" during Toronto Fashion Week in 2018. He has also been featured in music videos by Emotion with their track “Show Me The Way” ft. Kenadii G; finally, Benson also made television appearances on Global News @ 6 and in newspapers like Metro News.

Don studied guitar at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and attended the Banff School of Fine Arts Jazz Program. His performances and recording span everything from Pops concerts with Nana Mouskouri, Jim Nabors, Phyllis Diller and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, to shows with the Ice Capades, musicals at the Citadel Theatre, CBC Television and radio engagements, and the Edmonton Jazz City Festival. In addition to his busy teaching schedule, he writes for and performs in the band Mobius, which focuses on all original material. 

Don has also been supplying his original guitar driven compositions to varying international film projects such Forever Nester by Katrina Cebreiro from Los Angeles, California. The film has been official selections at numerous film festivals such as the Venice Short Film Awards and Indie Night Film Festival in Los Angeles, California. The Indie Night Film Festival is held at the famous TLC Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California where the Oscars are previously held and many Hollywood blockbusters premiere. Other film projects include Colonize directed by Royale Films from Liverpool, England, and horror feature film Repugnalia directed by Neil Boultby from Alicante, Spain.