Justin Tranter

The term multi-hyphenate almost exclusively exists as a catch-all; it’s usually just a simple stand-in for dual-hyphenate, or even tri-hyphenate, an easy, eye-popping descriptor that does the work for you. The term multi-hyphenate also exists to explain Justin Tranter’s innumerable professional ventures and their day-to-day existence.
It’s best to start with their laureled GRAMMY® Award-nominated songwriting/producing career, which includes a “Songwriter Of The Year”' nomination at the 66th Annual GRAMMY® Awards. Tranter is a word-whisperer and emotional translator, one of the music industry’s most in-demand writers/producers whose work has topped the pop charts while shaping and defining the sounds of the past decade. Tranter’s unparalleled creative fingerprint can be felt across music, film, TV and theater, as they have written regularly with some of the biggest names in music such as Baby Tate, Billy Porter, Cardi B, Janelle Monae, Kid Cudi, King Princess, Kim Petras, Leon Bridges, Sam Smith, The Jonas Brothers and more. Tranter is steeped and versed in music history, first as a member of the beloved band Semi-Precious Weapons and now as a musical swiss-army-knife whose words are known around the world.
Tranter is behind countless hits, from their first cut (in 2015 with Fall Out Boy’s “Centuries”) to their most recent hits such as the diamond-certified smash “Sorry” by Justin Bieber and “Believer” by Imagine Dragons, to Selena Gomez’s “Good For You” (featuring A$AP Rocky), Halsey’s “Bad At Love,” Reneé Rapp’s "Pretty Girls" and "Gemini Moon” and Måneskin's "Honey! (Are U Coming?),” Fall Out Boy’s “Centuries,” DNCE’S “Cake by the Ocean” and Maroon 5’s “Cold, just to name a few. With over 50 million single sales, 67 billion streams on Spotify and YouTube alone, 3 diamond-certified songs and dozens of honors as well as multiple GRAMMY® and Golden Globes® nominations, 16 total BMI Pop Awards and two consecutive “Songwriter of the Year'' titles at the BMI Pop Awards and a 2023 SONA Warrior Award, Tranter’s now decade-long career is unlike any other. During 2018 alone, they emerged as the only songwriter nominated for both “Song Of The Year” at the GRAMMYs® with “Issues” by Julia Michaels and “Best Original Song” at the Golden Globes® with “Home” from Ferdinand performed by Nick Jonas.
Beyond just songwriting and producing, they’ve helped shape the culture as we know it, lending their artistry to several of the biggest albums in recent memory, including Imagine Dragons & JID’s #1 single “Enemy” featured in the acclaimed Netflix series Arcane: League of Legends, Ariana Grande’s Thank U, Next (2019), Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia (2020), Miley Cyrus’s Endless Summer Vacation (2023), Lady Gaga’s Chromatica (2020), The Chicks’ Gaslighter (2020) and Selena Gomez’s Rare (2020) as well as Justin Bieber’s Purpose (2015).
“It's such proof that if you give the world true music, true art, they will receive it,” Tranter says. “We don't have to dumb things down for them to be hits – we actually have to just make it amazing, and the industry has to find ways for the world to hear it. It gives me proof that people want greatness. They really do. You just have to give it to them.”
Their journey is also gilded by the community they’ve built and grown with Facet House, an inclusive home for publishing and artistry run by Tranter, who has devoted themself – after being

dropped by “four different labels, so I know,” they joke – to propping open doors, making space, and walking the walk for singers and songwriters they believe in. Artists like Jake Wesley Rogers and Shea Diamond call Facet home, as do writers such as Skyler Stonestreet (“Boyfriend” by Dove Cameron), Russ Chell (“Rodeo” by Lil Nas X and Cardi B) and Jason Gill (“Never Really Over” by Katy Perry). “I find myself working with Facet writers more and more as we hone the ‘Facet Sound’ in sessions,” Tranter says of the collective. “We’re leaning into a bold, in-your-face, over-the-top sound. I like bold people, bold choices, and bold sounds. We take lyrical risks. We like organic instruments. We like stacking sounds. Facet is all that and more.”
Though still fledgling by music industry standards and timelines, Facet is under Tranter’s guidance and stewardship. They took the company under their full charge and control in early 2021, blossoming and making major inclusive inroads across music, film and television. “More than anything, Facet is what I know I have to do – I just have to. It’s the work that calls to me most, and the work that fulfills me,” they say. “Every time one of our writers or artists has any tiny bit of success, it reminds me of why I started doing this.”
Speaking of community, Tranter’s advocacy speaks for itself. Serving on the boards of GLAAD and the ACLU of Southern California, Tranter is a strident supporter of the arts, LGBTQIA+ rights and much more, with a storied track record of fighting for change, inclusivity and diversity. Their activism work has been prolific, and in 2019 they earned the prestigious ACLU Bill of Rights Award for their continued dedication to making meaningful change. For their Chicago alma mater, the Chicago Academy for the Arts, they gifted ‘The Justin Tranter Recording Studio,’ a state-of-the-art recording facility where current students are able to write, compose, produce and record music of all genres and styles. Most recently, Tranter accepted the Equality Visibility Award at Los Angeles’ Equality Awards, celebrating their activism and continued work within the LGBTQIA+ community.
Throughout their every endeavor, giving back remains fundamental, core and tethered to each fiber of their being, whether it’s delivering a Masterclass at fellow pop hitmakers Stargate’s mentorship school for budding songwriters and producers, or simply harnessing the power and size of their social platforms to enhance and inform the lives of their hundreds of thousands of followers. Since 2017, Tranter has also hosted, curated and produced an annual Spirit Day Concert. The 2019 event, titled “Beyond,” raised over $400K in support of GLAAD’s Spirit Day anti-bullying campaign – a record for the concert.
The multi-hyphenate world tour then leaves you off for a stint on Broadway and beyond with Tranter’s theatrical and screen work taking center stage. Having grown up watching and performing in shows as a child, they have now – along with the Tony-winning playwright V (f.k.a. Eve Ensler) and fellow songwriter Caroline Pennell – brought the world WILD: A Musical Becoming, a pop musical that tells a timely story of environmental activism, which starred Idina Menzel in its first-ever run last winter in a dazzling American Repertory Theater concert production. “For the last three years, I have been really going through an insane masterclass on how to write a musical,” they say with a laugh. “My way into music was always musical theater,

so to be able to come back to it professionally after all these years has been a thrill unlike any other.”
And as if one new musical weren’t enough, between WILD development sessions in V’s upstate New York home, Tranter was selected by the creators and showrunner (Atypical’s Annabel Oakes) behind the Grease prequel – Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies – to be the executive music producer and write more than 30 original songs for the streaming series, which premiered in spring 2023 on Paramount+. “I read the pilot and knew immediately that I needed this job,” they recall. “Grease is the ultimate pop musical, and Rise of the Pink Ladies has both challenged and rewarded me more than I ever knew possible.” And in their continued effort to turn songwriting into a sustainable, healthy, thriving career to make up for the diminishing “middle-class of songwriters disappearing entirely thanks to the advent of streaming,” Tranter’s four co-writers and producers on Rise of the Pink Ladies are all signed to Facet Publishing. “Getting hit songs is not a business plan,” they say. “Making songwriting a career is. That part of Pink Ladies has brought me as much joy as the rest of the project.”
“90% of my time I'm going after projects that can be a full Facet family takeover,” they add. “Because I'm making my best music right now with the people in my company, and that feels unbelievable.”
Tranter also executive produced the soundtrack of Billy Porter’s acclaimed directorial debut, the Prime Video film Anything’s Possible, executive produced and co-wrote the soundtrack to Netflix’s runaway hit Purple Hearts, co-wrote the end title song “Hindsight” for Billy Eichner’s heralded movie Bros, co-wrote two television theme songs with Shea Diamond for the HBO original shows We’re Here and Equal and served as the executive producer for the soundtrack to Happiest Season, the acclaimed Hulu film that smashed records as the streaming service’s most-watched original movie debut ever.
“The pop song is the artist's truth, and once you catch that vibe, you get to live in it for three minutes,” Tranter says of bifurcating their musical roles across genres and fields. “The musical necessitates that, in song, the characters say their inner monologue, and you have to go along their journey and get that character from point A to point Z in three minutes. And for a soundtrack, you have to capture the essence of the character, but you can’t say exactly what's happening or else you’ve failed.”
“They’re three very different parts of my brain that use the same skill,” they say. “For me, it all boils back down to writing songs, telling stories, and amplifying the voices that need to be heard.”