Adina Nelu
Adina Nelu is a classically-trained film and media composer, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and producer known for her emotionally resonant and narratively rich sonic worlds. Her work explores sonic storytelling and music as metaphor in media, merging her in-depth classical training with an experimental edge to create immersive, story-led scores that feel both intimate and expansive.
Spanning across various mediums, from global advertising campaigns to long-form fiction, documentary, and high-end TV promos, experimental audio and sound art installations, Adina’s signature sound is characterised by a calculated balance between sonic beauty and disruption. Her music often blends orchestral writing with ambient textures, eerie-to-ethereal vocals, sometimes glitches & sound design and non-traditional instrumentation, crafting a sonic identity that adapts deeply to the needs of each story.
Her credits include additional music for the award-winning sci-fi feature The Beast (dir. Bertrand Bonello), BBC Three’s Paranormal: The Girl, the Ghost & the Gravestone, Sky Arts’ Dickens: Phantoms and Fiction. Her latest feature The Wishing Tree was shortlisted for Romania’s submission for the 2023 Academy Awards (Best International Film) and was awarded with an Effie Award for Positive Change as Romania’s first ever charitable feature film, managing to generate 800.000 euros in donations for a children’s palliative care centre.
Adina’s music has also been heard in trailers and promos for and FX’s Social Studies, AMC’s Mayfair Witches, Wicked The Musical for Telemundo, Sky History’s Ghost Ships, Borgo for Canal+, Play4’s Assisen, and throughout major reality series across ARTE, Sky, RTL, M6, TV2, Joyn, and Univision, in shows like Love Island VIP, Top Chef and The Traitors.
She has worked on campaigns and commissions for clients including Amazon Books, Dove, Johnnie Walker, Checkatrade, Spitfire Audio, BBC Arts, Glamour Magazine and ELLE Romania. Her trailer music has been published by Universal Production Music, BBC Production Music and SATV.
Her original arrangement of Pure Imagination (featuring Victoria Canal) for Dove’s global advertising campaign The Code was nominated for Best Re-record at the 2024 Music + Sound Awards and contributed to the campaign’s Grand Prix and two Silver Lion wins at Cannes Lions 2025.
Adina is a BAFTA Connect member and recipient of the Sound and Music Francis Chagrin Award, the Arts Council England DYCP grant, and the Help Musicians Do It Differently Fund. She was selected for BFI Network x BAFTA Crew in 2021 and is currently represented by 515, a London-based agency championing women and gender-minority composers.
Romanian-born and UK-based, Adina brings an authentic, cross-cultural perspective to every project, often centering female-led narratives and underrepresented voices in her work.
