Milwaukee Native Justin Hurwitz Wins 2 Oscars

Milwaukee native Justin Hurwitz won two Oscars at Sunday night’s Academy Awards ceremony. The “La La Land” composer won Best Original Score, which recognizes the instrumental music playing throughout the film.

In his acceptance speech, Hurwitz thanked his friend and Harvard classmate, “La La Land” director Damien Chazelle, saying, “I’m so glad I met you.” He also showed his gratitude to the rest of the film’s cast and crew.

“Everybody whose work is on screen in any way in this movie, I was looking at your work when I was scoring the picture,” said Hurwitz. “I was looking at what you did when I was scoring the picture and that’s what inspired me, so thank you to everyone who worked on this movie.”

Hurwitz was also nominated for two awards in the Best Original Song category, and took home the award for co-writing the song “City of Stars” with Justin Paul and Benj Pasek. The song, “Audition (Fools Who Dream),” was also nominated in that category.

Hurwitz graduated in 2003 from Nicolet High School in Glendale.