James Oliverio is an American composer of film scores and contemporary classical music.
James Oliverio was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He studied composition at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Oliverio later moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where he was the composer-in-residence at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His music for the film Time and Dreams was included in Atlanta's successful bid to host the 1996 Summer Olympics. His piece The Explorer (later retitled To Boldly Go...) was commissioned and premiered as the opening for that summer's four-year Cultural Olympiad. During the 1990s, Oliverio was described as "Atlanta's hottest composer".
A lifelong friend of the timpanist brothers Paul and Mark Yancich, Oliverio has composed a number of works for the performers, including his first and second timpani concertos and the 2011 double timpani concerto Dynasty.