Michael Giacchino

Michael Giacchino was born on October 10, 1967, in Riverside Township, New Jersey. From a young age, he displayed an interest in combining visuals and music, creating stop-motion animations with accompanying soundtracks in his basement by age 10. He attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City, majoring in film production and minoring in history. During his final year at SVA, he secured an unpaid internship at Universal Pictures, a position he balanced with school and work at Macy’s. After graduating in 1990 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, he continued his musical education with classes at the Juilliard School and UCLA. His early career at Disney involved working in publicity before transitioning to Disney Interactive as a producer.

Giacchino began his composition career in video games, creating original orchestral scores for titles like `The Lost World: Jurassic Park` (1997) for DreamWorks and the `Medal of Honor` series, which was notable for using a live orchestral score for a PlayStation title. This work caught the attention of J.J. Abrams, who hired Giacchino to compose for the television series `Alias` in 2001, followed by `Lost` in 2004, for which he won an Emmy Award. His breakthrough in feature films came in 2004 with Pixar’s `The Incredibles`, directed by Brad Bird. The film’s jazz orchestral style was a new direction for both Giacchino and Pixar, earning him two Grammy nominations.

Throughout his career, Giacchino has consistently delivered scores for major franchises and acclaimed films. He won an Academy Award for Best Original Score for `Up` (2009), becoming the first Pixar film to win in that category. He has scored numerous films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, `Star Trek` reboot series, `Jurassic World`, and `Planet of the Apes` franchises. In addition to composing, Giacchino has ventured into directing, making his professional debut with `Monster Challenge` (2018) and directing the Marvel Studios Disney+ special `Werewolf by Night` (2022).