Composer MICHAEL GIACCHINO has credits that feature some of the most popular and acclaimed film projects in recent history, including Inside Out, Jurassic World, The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Giacchino’s 2009 score for the Pixar hit Upearned him an Oscar®, a Golden Globe®, the BAFTA, the Broadcast Film Critics' Choice Award and two GRAMMY® Awards.
Giacchino began his filmmaking career at the age of 10 in his backyard in Edgewater Park, New Jersey, and eventually went on to study filmmaking at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. After college, he landed a marketing job at Disney and began studies in music composition, first at Juilliard and then at UCLA. From marketing, he became a producer in the fledgling Disney Interactive Division where he had the opportunity towrite music for video games.
After moving to a producing job at the newly formed DreamWorks Interactive Division, he was asked to score the temp track for the video game adaptation of The Lost World:Jurassic Park. Subsequently, Steven Spielberg hired him as the composer and it became the first PlayStation game to have a live orchestral score. Giacchino continued writing for video games and became well known for his Medal of Honor scores.
Giacchino’s work in video games sparked the interest of J.J. Abrams, and thus began their long-standing relationship that would lead to scores for the hit television series Alias and Lost, and the feature films Mission Impossible III, Star Trek, Super 8 and Star Trek Into Darkness.
Additional projects include collaborations with Disney Imagineering on music for SpaceMountain, Star Tours (with John Williams) and the Ratatouille ride in Disneyland Paris.Giacchino also was the musical director of the 81st Annual Academy Awards®. Hismusic can be heard in concert halls internationally withStar Trek,Star Trek Into Darkness,Star Trek Beyond,andRatatouillefilms being performed live-to-picture with a fullorchestra.
Last year, Giacchino’s music could be heard in Zootopia, Star Trek Beyond, Dr. Strange, and in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which marked the first score to be composed for a Star Wars film following John Williams. Giacchino’s projects for2017 include War for the Planet of the Apes, Spider-Man: Homecoming, The Book of Henry and Pixar’s Coco.
Giacchino serves as the Governor of the Music Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and sits on the advisory board of Education Through Music Los Angeles.
July 2017