Michael Giacchino (born October 10, 1967) is an American composer of music … Read Full Bio ↴Michael Giacchino (born October 10, 1967) is an American composer of music for films, television and video games. He has also served as a director for film and television. He has received many awards, including an Oscar, an Emmy, and three Grammys.
Giacchino is known for his collaborations with J. J. Abrams, Brad Bird, Matt Reeves, Pete Docter, Colin Trevorrow, Jon Watts, Drew Goddard, The Wachowskis, Taika Waititi and Thomas Bezucha. Giacchino's film scores include several films from the Mission: Impossible, Jurassic World, Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Star Trek reboot series; seven Pixar Animation Studios films, including The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and Up; also other movies including Super 8, Speed Racer, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Zootopia, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, War for the Planet of the Apes, Bad Times at the El Royale, Spider-Man: No Way Home, The Batman, Thor: Love and Thunder; and the upcoming film Next Goal Wins.
Giacchino also composed the score for the video game series Medal of Honor and Call of Duty and the television series Alias, Lost, and Fringe.
In addition to his long list of soundtracks, in 2005 Giacchino collaborated with Walt Disney Imagineering in creating two new soundtracks for the updated versions of Space Mountain at Disneyland, Space Mountain: Mission 2 at Disneyland Paris, and Space Mountain at Hong Kong Disneyland.[20] Giacchino was also contracted by Sarah Vowell, who played character Violet in The Incredibles, to compose the score to the audio version of her book Assassination Vacation. Michael Giacchino's music can also be heard in "Star Tours: The Adventure Continues" during the "travel log videos" shown in the queue for both the Disneyland and Walt Disney World versions of the attraction.
In 2009, he was asked to conduct the Academy Awards orchestra for the 81st Academy Awards. For this project he rearranged many famous movie themes in different styles, including a 1930s Big Band treatment of Lawrence of Arabia and a bossa nova of Moon River. Giacchino also composed the fanfare for the 100th Anniversary logo of Paramount Pictures, which debuted with Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol on December 7, 2011, at the Dubai International Film Festival, which it carried onto the logos of Paramount Players, which debuted alongside the logo with Nobody's Fool on November 2, 2018, Paramount Animation, which debuted alongside the logo with The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run on August 14, 2020, in Canada and Paramount Television Studios, which debuted with an episode of Minority Report and was also used on the Paramount Network Original Productions logo with 68 Whiskey, as well as the new fanfare for Marvel Studios, which debuted alongside its logo with Doctor Strange on October 13, 2016, in Hong Kong, in which he also composed the theme song of the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon series, in Spider-Man: Homecoming, replacing his work on the fanfare of the Marvel Studios logo for that film. He also used the notes of the fanfare at the end of the opening theme of Marvel Studios: Legends.
In 2015, Giacchino played an It's a Small World operator in the film Tomorrowland which he scored. Additionally, the same year, he played First Order Stormtrooper FN-3181 in J. J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens. He reprised the role in the 2018 animated film Ralph Breaks the Internet. In 2019, he cameoed as a Sith trooper in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, also directed by Abrams.
Giacchino was born in Riverside Township, New Jersey. His father's ancestors were Italians, coming from Sicily, and his mother's ancestors emigrated from Abruzzo (in the center of Italy). Giacchino grew up in Edgewater Park Township, New Jersey, and graduated from Holy Cross High School in Delran Township, New Jersey in 1986. He holds dual American and Italian citizenship. His brother Anthony Giacchino is a documentary filmmaker.
Giacchino began combining images and music at age 10, when he began creating stop-motion animation with homemade soundtracks in his basement. While in high school, an art teacher who mentored Giacchino recommended to his parents that he attend the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Giacchino enrolled at SVA, majoring in film production and minoring in history. During his final year at SVA, his instructor in film publicity announced an unpaid internship was available at Universal Pictures. Giacchino, who was the only one interested, obtained the six-month position, which he filled at night while attending school during the day and working at Macy's to pay his rent. He graduated from SVA in 1990 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, after which he took music classes at the Juilliard School, and then at UCLA.
Giacchino is noted for using humorous titles filled with puns on his soundtrack albums. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and Jurassic World in particular had many ape- and dinosaur-related double entendres such as "Gorilla Warfare" and "Raptor Your Heart Out". Many of those have references to previous works of his, both in style and naming. Giacchino used themes from the track "U-Boat" from the Medal of Honor soundtrack in the tracks "Sawyer Jones and the Temple of Boom" and "Sub-Primed" from the 5th and 6th season Lost soundtracks as the submarine motif. In terms of naming, the score for The Incredibles contains a piece named "100 Mile Dash", and subsequently Ratatouille had "100 Rat Dash", Up had "Three Dog Dash", and Coco had "Shrine and Dash". Another series of examples: "World's Worst Beach Party" from the first Lost album, "World's Worst Last 4 Minutes To Live" from the Mission: Impossible III soundtrack, "Galaxy's Worst Sushi Bar" from Star Trek (2010 deluxe release), "World's Worst Landscaping" from the second Lost album, "World's Worst Car Wash" from the soundtrack album Lost: The Final Season, and "World's Worst Field Trip" from the soundtrack of Super 8.
The soundtrack for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol also has a track titled "World's Worst Parking Valet", and the score for Zootopia contains a track titled "World's Worst Animal Shelter" as well as the score for Incredibles 2 including a track called "World's Worst Babysitters". Inversely, the score for Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction has a track titled "World's Best Carpool Lane"; the Speed Racer score has tracks titled "World's Best Autopia" and "World's Worst Road Rage"; the soundtrack for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom has a track titled "World's Worst Bedtime Storyteller"; the Doctor Strange score has a track titled "Astral World's Worst Killer"; the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story score has an alternate title for "Cargo Shuttle SW-0608" which is "World's Worst Vacation Destination"; the Spider-Man: Far From Home score has a track titled "World's Worst Water Feature"; the Spider-Man: No Way Home score has a track titled "World's Worst Friendly Neighbor"; The Batman score has a track entitled "World's Worst Translator" and the Lightyear score has a track entitled "World's Worst Self-Destruct Sequence".
Giacchino is known for his collaborations with J. J. Abrams, Brad Bird, Matt Reeves, Pete Docter, Colin Trevorrow, Jon Watts, Drew Goddard, The Wachowskis, Taika Waititi and Thomas Bezucha. Giacchino's film scores include several films from the Mission: Impossible, Jurassic World, Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Star Trek reboot series; seven Pixar Animation Studios films, including The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and Up; also other movies including Super 8, Speed Racer, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Zootopia, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, War for the Planet of the Apes, Bad Times at the El Royale, Spider-Man: No Way Home, The Batman, Thor: Love and Thunder; and the upcoming film Next Goal Wins.
Giacchino also composed the score for the video game series Medal of Honor and Call of Duty and the television series Alias, Lost, and Fringe.
In addition to his long list of soundtracks, in 2005 Giacchino collaborated with Walt Disney Imagineering in creating two new soundtracks for the updated versions of Space Mountain at Disneyland, Space Mountain: Mission 2 at Disneyland Paris, and Space Mountain at Hong Kong Disneyland.[20] Giacchino was also contracted by Sarah Vowell, who played character Violet in The Incredibles, to compose the score to the audio version of her book Assassination Vacation. Michael Giacchino's music can also be heard in "Star Tours: The Adventure Continues" during the "travel log videos" shown in the queue for both the Disneyland and Walt Disney World versions of the attraction.
In 2009, he was asked to conduct the Academy Awards orchestra for the 81st Academy Awards. For this project he rearranged many famous movie themes in different styles, including a 1930s Big Band treatment of Lawrence of Arabia and a bossa nova of Moon River. Giacchino also composed the fanfare for the 100th Anniversary logo of Paramount Pictures, which debuted with Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol on December 7, 2011, at the Dubai International Film Festival, which it carried onto the logos of Paramount Players, which debuted alongside the logo with Nobody's Fool on November 2, 2018, Paramount Animation, which debuted alongside the logo with The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run on August 14, 2020, in Canada and Paramount Television Studios, which debuted with an episode of Minority Report and was also used on the Paramount Network Original Productions logo with 68 Whiskey, as well as the new fanfare for Marvel Studios, which debuted alongside its logo with Doctor Strange on October 13, 2016, in Hong Kong, in which he also composed the theme song of the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon series, in Spider-Man: Homecoming, replacing his work on the fanfare of the Marvel Studios logo for that film. He also used the notes of the fanfare at the end of the opening theme of Marvel Studios: Legends.
In 2015, Giacchino played an It's a Small World operator in the film Tomorrowland which he scored. Additionally, the same year, he played First Order Stormtrooper FN-3181 in J. J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens. He reprised the role in the 2018 animated film Ralph Breaks the Internet. In 2019, he cameoed as a Sith trooper in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, also directed by Abrams.
Giacchino was born in Riverside Township, New Jersey. His father's ancestors were Italians, coming from Sicily, and his mother's ancestors emigrated from Abruzzo (in the center of Italy). Giacchino grew up in Edgewater Park Township, New Jersey, and graduated from Holy Cross High School in Delran Township, New Jersey in 1986. He holds dual American and Italian citizenship. His brother Anthony Giacchino is a documentary filmmaker.
Giacchino began combining images and music at age 10, when he began creating stop-motion animation with homemade soundtracks in his basement. While in high school, an art teacher who mentored Giacchino recommended to his parents that he attend the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Giacchino enrolled at SVA, majoring in film production and minoring in history. During his final year at SVA, his instructor in film publicity announced an unpaid internship was available at Universal Pictures. Giacchino, who was the only one interested, obtained the six-month position, which he filled at night while attending school during the day and working at Macy's to pay his rent. He graduated from SVA in 1990 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, after which he took music classes at the Juilliard School, and then at UCLA.
Giacchino is noted for using humorous titles filled with puns on his soundtrack albums. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and Jurassic World in particular had many ape- and dinosaur-related double entendres such as "Gorilla Warfare" and "Raptor Your Heart Out". Many of those have references to previous works of his, both in style and naming. Giacchino used themes from the track "U-Boat" from the Medal of Honor soundtrack in the tracks "Sawyer Jones and the Temple of Boom" and "Sub-Primed" from the 5th and 6th season Lost soundtracks as the submarine motif. In terms of naming, the score for The Incredibles contains a piece named "100 Mile Dash", and subsequently Ratatouille had "100 Rat Dash", Up had "Three Dog Dash", and Coco had "Shrine and Dash". Another series of examples: "World's Worst Beach Party" from the first Lost album, "World's Worst Last 4 Minutes To Live" from the Mission: Impossible III soundtrack, "Galaxy's Worst Sushi Bar" from Star Trek (2010 deluxe release), "World's Worst Landscaping" from the second Lost album, "World's Worst Car Wash" from the soundtrack album Lost: The Final Season, and "World's Worst Field Trip" from the soundtrack of Super 8.
The soundtrack for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol also has a track titled "World's Worst Parking Valet", and the score for Zootopia contains a track titled "World's Worst Animal Shelter" as well as the score for Incredibles 2 including a track called "World's Worst Babysitters". Inversely, the score for Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction has a track titled "World's Best Carpool Lane"; the Speed Racer score has tracks titled "World's Best Autopia" and "World's Worst Road Rage"; the soundtrack for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom has a track titled "World's Worst Bedtime Storyteller"; the Doctor Strange score has a track titled "Astral World's Worst Killer"; the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story score has an alternate title for "Cargo Shuttle SW-0608" which is "World's Worst Vacation Destination"; the Spider-Man: Far From Home score has a track titled "World's Worst Water Feature"; the Spider-Man: No Way Home score has a track titled "World's Worst Friendly Neighbor"; The Batman score has a track entitled "World's Worst Translator" and the Lightyear score has a track entitled "World's Worst Self-Destruct Sequence".
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