Founders Matt Drenik and Johanna Cranitch, along with partner and executive producer Christina Tortorelli Carlo, have come together to launch Little Beast. Born from the long-standing friendship of musicians at competing music houses, Little Beast is built on creative partnership and community.
Little Beast provides full-service music for film, television, and advertising, from original composition and production to artist partnerships and music supervision. While Little Beast can approach music through the traditional advertising model, it operates from the perspective of artists who actively compose, produce, and perform, with the overall goal of bringing emotional truth and musical integrity to the heart of the process.
Before forming Little Beast, Matt Drenik worked as a creative director at SOUTH Music & Sound, where he was also partner; Johanna Cranitch was creative director at Barking Owl; and Christina Tortorelli Carlo served as executive producer at Heavy Duty. With a focus on craft first, Little Beast’s core team works side-by-side at their studio in Los Angeles, collaborating with a deep network of touring musicians, composers, and producers to ensure every project is paired with the right musical voice, creating story-driven work that genuinely resonates with audiences.
Co-founder Johanna Cranitch elaborated on this principle, saying, “The priority is curating exceptional talent and producing meaningful work. We believe that sustainable success follows when creative decisions are guided by passion, integrity, and a genuine love of music.”
Johanna Cranitch is the co-composer (alongside Patrick Stump) behind the Tribeca Film Festival feature documentary ‘Billy Idol Should Be Dead’, directed by musician and filmmaker Jonas Åkerlund, and set for distribution later this year. She also composed for the documentary chronicling the Sunset Marquis music scene, ‘If These Walls Could Rock’, directed by Tyler Measom and Craig A. Williams.
Little Beast’s founders are also touring musicians: Cranitch was a touring member of The Cranberries and with Nina Persson of The Cardigans, while Matt Drenik tours with Louise Post of Veruca Salt. Additionally, Drenik worked as a contributing composer to the FX hit drama ‘Sons of Anarchy’.
“As working artists, we felt there was room for a different point of view in the music-for-picture space,” added fellow co-founder, Matt Drenik. “We spent summers writing and playing music together, and at a certain point, the idea felt inevitable. If we were already creating together in so many aspects of life, why not build something of our own?”
The founding partners’ collective background speaks to their creative instinct and technical precision with decades of work spanning global campaigns, studio production, and live performance. Surrounding them is a trusted circle of tastemakers, composers, and collaborators, whose multifaceted approach to musical storytelling balances commercial fluency with artistic credibility.
Little Beast is already making noise. The music house developed the custom music for Jeep and Highdive’s ‘Billy Goes to the River,’ featuring a retro Big Mouth Billy Bass covering the Al Green classic ‘Take Me to the River.’ Released during the saturated week of the Super Bowl, the spot cut through the noise, capturing audience attention and earning industry acclaim. As its first official project, it marked a memorable debut for the company.
Christina Tortorelli Carlo, partner and EP, remarked on the company’s launch, “At its core, Little Beast is a company built on friendship, shared values, and a belief that music is most powerful when it comes from a real place. We exist to create work that feels human and emotionally grounded, music that moves people as much as it moves brands. Ultimately, music that moves us as a company because that is who we are and what we love.”