Biography for
Michael Giacchino More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

Trade Mark

Frequently hires the Hollywood Studio Symphony to perform his scores

Frequently hires Dan Wallin to record and mix his scores

Frequently hires Tim Simonec to orchestrate and conduct his scores

The music he writes is thematic so that each character in the films he scores are identified by their theme.

Frequently works with J.J. Abrams and Pixar

Trivia

Grew up in Edgewater Park, New Jersey

His last name is pronounced "jee-ah-kee-no".

Has 3 children.

One of 105 people invited to join AMPAS in 2008.

He created the music for the updated 2005 version of Space Mountain at Disneyland.

He is the first video game composer to be nominated for an Academy Award. He won in 2009 for his acclaimed score of Up (2009).

Was nominated for Film Composer of the Year in 2004, 2007, 2009 and 2011 by the International Film Music Critics Association. He only won the award in 2004.

He and J.J. Abrams have often spoken of their first meeting as if they'd known each other their whole lives, even though they grew up in opposite parts of the United States.

Personal Quotes

I think my writing has an old-fashioned feel to it, for whatever reason. I'm just so influenced by the music that I listened to growing up, a lot of it out of the 60's, so it has a natural tendency to feel like it's from another era.

I do pick projects because I love them. If I get into a project where I feel like either the people are there just because it's a job for them and it's not going to be an enjoyable process and it's going to be a war zone to get through, I always say no to that, regardless. Money is kind of irrelevant in all of this.