Jonathan Zalben received a Master's degree in music composition and multimedia from New York University, a BA in music from Yale University, and studied violin and music composition at Juilliard PreCollege. He currently runs First Frame Music a company for music supervision, licensing, and score.

Zalben has written music for films released by HBO, Lionsgate, Discovery, and Sony Pictures Classics. His film music has also screened at Sundance, Berlin, SXSW, Tribeca, and LA Film Festival. He scored the Oscar-nominated documentary, Redemption (HBO) directed by Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill, the feature film "Flock of Dudes" (Starz) starring Chris D'Elia, Hannah Simone, and Ray Liotta, as well as the documentary There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane (HBO), directed by Liz Garbus. His music has been heard at Sundance in Morgan Spurlock's The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (Sony Pictures Classics), Evan Glodell's Bellflower (Oscilloscope), and Elizabeth Lo's New York Times Op-Doc, Hotel 22 (PBS).

Zalben has also written original music for Son of Morning (eOne: Joseph Cross, Danny Glover, Heather Graham, Lorraine Bracco), Gods of Circumstance (Cineville: John Schneider), Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror (Lionsgate / Xenon Pictures: Jason Alexander, Method Man), Kissing Cousins (David Allen Grier, Jaleel White), Germans and Jews (First Run Features), Beyond the Trophy (Lionsgate: Eric Roberts, Michael Madsen). He orchestrated the music for Repo: The Genetic Opera (Lionsgate / Twisted Pictures: Paris Hilton, Paul Sorvino, Alexa Vega, Sarah Brightman, Anthony Head).

Zalben's music supervision credits include Amy Berg's Janis: Little Girl Blue (PBS), Ian Old's The Fixer starring James Franco and Melissa Leo, Courteney Cox's directorial debut Just Before I Go (Starz), Adam Goldberg's No Way Jose (Sony Pictures Worldwide), Comedy Warriors (Showtime), Sunset Strip (Showtime), The Short Game (Netflix / Samuel Goldwyn Films), The Guest (Snoot Entertainment / Universal Pictures), Cheap Thrills (Drafthouse) starring Pat Healy, Sara Paxton, and Ethan Embry, and Gabriel Cowan's 3 Nights in the Desert (Monterey Media) starring Wes Bentley, Vincent Piazza, and Amber Tamblyn.

Zalben has received grants from the Experimental TV Center through the New York State Council on the Arts, American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Manhattan Community Arts Fund and Swing Space Program, US Navy, and the National Academy of Sciences. His multimedia work has been presented at the Boston Public Library during Boston Cyberarts, Art Without Walls in Central Park, Knitting Factory, PS122, 3LD, HERE Art Center, Ontological Theater at St. Mark's Church, and Galapagos Art Space. He was a research fellow at the US Department of Energy, Argonne National Laboratory and has also been in residence at the Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music (STEIM) in Amsterdam.

Compound Pilot, a net art collaboration with Marshall Jones, won the "Classic" Award at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival and has been shown at galleries in the US, Canada, Korea, Argentina, Australia, England, and Armenia. Zalben has over a decade of experience in interaction design and physical computing and holds a U.S. patent for a muffler that reduces noise through a series of tuned domes.