Pepe Manikan hails from the Philippines where he plays with the pioneering progressive metal/rock groups Eternal Now and Cinderblock and was the previous musical director and cast member of Philippine’s premier improv theater group Silly People’s Improv Theater or SPIT. He is also a music and audio producer for film, television, radio, and new media.

Pepe has won awards for best musical score in Cinemalaya 2017 for the film KIKO BOKSINGERO and in 2013 for REKORDER in France. He has also been nominated for best musical score and best sound design in various local award giving bodies.

In 2013, he became the first and only local endorser of Kurzweil Music Systems. In the recent 2022 Cinemalaya, he scored the music to the festival’s best picture, Carlo Obispo’s The Baseball Player and Sheenly Gener’s Bula sa Langit. He also bagged the best sound design award for the latter in the 2022 Cinemalaya festival and at the YCC 2023 for best aural orchestration.

When not producing, he likes sharing his knowledge by conducting workshops and classes. He teaches sound and music production as a part-time faculty for colleges and universities in the Philippines.