On May 13, Amazon Prime Video debuted its highly anticipated new series, Off Campus. The eight-episode sports romance stars Ella Bright as Hannah Wells, an aspiring musician, alongside Belmont Cameli as hockey star Garrett Graham. Like its source material, The Deal by Elle Kennedy,” a “BookTok” favorite, the series connects its characters not only through their relationships, but through their shared taste in music.
Juice Box Press joined 1824 in conversation with Bright, composer Alana Da Fonseca, and music supervisor Amanda Thomas to learn how they curated the perfect soundtrack for the show.
Intentional Needle Drops
When The Deal first hit bookstore shelves in 2015, One Direction was still at the top of the charts. While “Night Changes” remains a classic, a decade later, it feels a bit dated.
Thomas, who served as music supervisor, set out to bring Off Campus into the present. “One of the things that we wanted to do with the soundtrack…was tapping into sort of a timelessness with the sound,” she explained.
She approached that goal by ensuring every needle drop felt “intentional.” Guided by the “blueprint” of Louisa Levy’s script, Thomas described the process as an ongoing conversation, often asking, “Is this a moment for a throwback? Is this a moment for a current song?”
“I think our guiding light was always just, what feels intentional? If it’s a throwback, why is it a throwback? Is it because it’s like a Hannah and Garrett song, and that’s connected to them?”
When it came to the original songs, Fonesca echoed that same philosophy. She worked closely with Bright and Josh Heuston, who plays band frontman Justin, to better understand their musical tastes, asking questions like: What inspires you? What do you listen to? What would you want your character to sound like?
Those conversations helped Fonseca shape a sound that felt true not only to the characters, but to how people their age actually want to sound.
“It was a really collaborative process between everyone,” she said.
Highlighting Emerging Artists
Part of building a soundtrack that felt fresh and current also meant spotlighting emerging artists. While curating, Thomas and her partner stayed in close contact with labels like Universal Music Group, who regularly shared unreleased tracks for consideration. That’s how artists like Will Linley and Asha Banks ultimately found their way onto the soundtrack.
Although Thomas enjoys digging through platforms like Spotify to discover new talent, she emphasized how valuable those label relationships can be. “I also love utilizing those connections because it creates this amazing collaborative moment—someone sends me a song, it finds the perfect home, and now everyone gets to experience it,” she explained. “That’s just as special as discovering something on my own online.”
One artist who found a natural home on both the soundtrack and the screen was Remi Wolf, who made her acting debut in episode one as a Briar University Block Party performer. From the start, she was at the top of the team’s wishlist, despite having no prior acting experience. Just as they aimed for intentionality in their needle drops, they wanted the on-screen performances to feel equally authentic.
Reflecting on filming, Thomas recalled the incredible energy on set during those scenes. “By the end of the day, the cast was so excited and Wolf was having such a great time that she stayed for hours,” she said. “It became this really positive experience for everyone involved, and I think that energy carries through on screen.”
Discovering Hannah
“You can find out a lot about a person from their music taste,” Bright said of her approach to understanding her character, Hannah.
To get into Hannah’s “headspace,” Ella curated a playlist based on what she thought the character would listen to. That extra step helped Ella deepen her understanding of Hannah, especially in some of the show’s most emotional moments.
“There’s a scene in episode seven where Hannah is on the phone with her mom, and there isn’t any music in the scene,” Bright explained, “but ‘Call Your Mom’ by Noah Kahan was a song I kept listening to on repeat to kind of get into that emotional space.”
Having that musical connection to the character was “so impactful,” she added. “It really drives the story forward and also helps me progress in the character.”
She also noted that music became a shared language amongst the cast. “I think for all of us, we all had playlists, which was really fun hearing everybody else’s and their takes on what these characters might be hearing or listening to in their day-to-day lives.”
Finding Hannah’s Showcase Song
When trying to find someone to write Hannah’s triumphant showcase song, “Girl That I Am,” the team knew they wanted Amy Allen. The Grammy winner is behind some of today’s biggest pop artists, including Sabrina Carpenter.
“Amy is not only brilliant, but she writes for other people. She connects with Hannah in a way that not every person would,” Thomas explained.
She recalled Allen immediately connecting with the character of Hannah over their shared pursuit of music, with Amy having attended Berklee College of Music and bringing a similar lived-in understanding of the character’s ambitions.
Bright recalled hearing Allen’s demo for the first time. “I remember it was during the Thanksgiving scene, and Louisa was on set and pulled me in. I had my headphones on and Alana and Amanda were on the phone, and I just got to react.”
“I got so emotional,” Bright said. “I think the lyrics are so reflective of Hannah’s journey.” The song itself draws inspiration from a pivotal moment in which Hannah finally opens up to her best friend Allie.
To fully capture Hannah’s world sonically, Fonesca incorporated hockey sounds to create percussion. With previous work on the Pitch Perfect soundtracks, she was already familiar with blending unconventional sonic elements into musical storytelling.
“Ella was a fan of this vocal looping scene from Pitch Perfect 3 that I had actually done,” Fonesca said. “So we were like, okay, we’re putting that in. It was such a cool moment to really bring that to life.”
Performing Live
Although Bright, who is relatively new to music, appreciated that some performances were prerecorded for production purposes, Fonesca was quick to highlight the strength of her live vocals.
“Ella is downplaying by a major degree her level of talent,” Fonesca said, noting that in episodes six and eight, Ella performed “completely and entirely live – she’s playing guitar and singing live.”
Because vocal performance wasn’t part of the original casting process, Fonesca admitted there was some initial uncertainty around how the actors would handle the musical elements. She asked Ella to send a video of herself playing guitar and singing on her phone, and what came back exceeded expectations. “I was like, she could be a signed recording artist. I was like, my job is done…It was amazing to work with her. Every time she was in the booth, she was bringing all of her heart and soul to these songs. And you can hear it.”
That combination of talent and emotional depth has clearly resonated with audiences with Off Campus already renewed for a second season. While details of the storyline remain under wraps, one thing is for sure, the soundtrack is a score!
Featured Photo Credit: Amazon Prime Video
Amelia Cordischi, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Juice Box Press, is an accomplished digital marketing professional with over a decade of experience in media and communications. Her work has been featured in notable publications, including The Boston Globe. A communications graduate of Simmons University in Boston, Amelia served as manager of Simmons College Radio (“The Shark”), where she also launched and co-hosted her radio show, The Find.
In addition to her editorial work, Amelia is an established freelance photographer, with bylines in Blended Magazine and CelebMix, capturing artists and cultural moments across the music and media landscape. Her career began at WCVB-TV’s Chronicle, the ABC affiliate in Boston, where she gained firsthand experience in broadcast journalism and storytelling.
When she’s not taking photos from the photo pit, interviewing emerging artists, or crafting the next Juice Box Press feature, Amelia can be found thrifting and exploring the world of sustainable fashion.