This year’s Academy Awards is notable for its record number of Black nominees, and among them is composer Kris Bowers. While you may not know the name, you certainly know his scores. He’s composed the music for Netflix favorite Bridgerton, The United States vs. Billie Holiday, and all four episodes of Ava DuVernay’s Emmy-nominated series When They See Us. It’s for that reason, the director didn’t hesitate to executive produce Bowers’ own film which is nominated for Best Documentary – Short Subject at this year’s Academy Awards. “He’s young, he’s vibrant, he’s incredibly talented,” DuVernay told ESSENCE at the time Bowers was just an Oscar-nominee hopeful. “He’s someone that I worked with and I was just like, “God, I want everything for him. I want everything that he wants to happen.”