Michael Giacchino (pronounced “Juh-keen-oh”) was born 10th October 1967 in Riverside Township, New Jersey, and grew up in nearby Edgewater Park. He started venturing into films at the age of ten, creating stop motion animations on his brother’s pool table. He found the most enjoyable part of the process was putting music to the pictures.
He studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York where he received a major in film production and a minor in history. At the same time, he took an unpaid internship at Universal Pictures as well as working at a department store to pay the rent.
He graduated in 1990 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and began studying music at the Lincoln Center’s Juilliard School. He worked day jobs at the publicity offices for Universal and Disney, and two years later, moved to Disney Studios in Burbank. As well as working in their feature film publicity department, he took night classes in music at UCLA.
His work at Disney meant interacting with various people from the film industry. Realizing that producers hired composers, he figured out that if he became a producer he could effectively hire himself, and he later started producing – and composing – for Disney Interactive.
In 1997, newly formed DreamWorks Interactive asked him to score their video game adaptation of The Lost World: Jurassic Park. By complete fluke, it became the first PlayStation game to have a live orchestral score, when producer Steven Spielberg asked when Michael’s demo music would be recorded live.
Michael continued writing for video games and became well known for his Medal Of Honor scores. In 2001, he received an e-mail complementing his music and asking if he would be interested working in TV. That e-mail was from J.J. Abrams, who was starting production on Alias. Michael took the job, and has since worked on nearly every one of Abrams’ projects, including Lost, Mission: Impossible III, Super 8, Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness.
Michael also frequently works with Brad Bird – scoring The Incredibles, Ratatouille and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, and Matt Reeves – writing an overture for Cloverfield, and scoring Let Me In and Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes.
Working with director Pete Doctor on Up landed Michael two Grammys, a Golden Globe, a Bafta and an Oscar. However while Up received the most critical acclaim, Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness have proven to be his most popular scores. Michael is currently taking them “on tour”, and they have been performed live to picture around the world, including at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
As well as writing music for films, TV, games, and even theme park rides, Michael is also an advisory board member of Education Through Music Los Angeles – an organization which promotes the integration of music into the curricula of disadvantaged schools.
Upcoming scores to look forward to include Jupiter Ascending, Tomorrowland, Jurassic World and Inside Out.
Michael’s music can often be heard in concerts worldwide. Be sure to check out upcoming events to see where you can hear his music live.
