Michael Giacchino

From an early age, Michael Giacchino found himself drawn equally to cinema and musical composition, a dual passion that ultimately shaped his path as a sought-after scorer of feature films and episodic television. His most recognizable contributions have accompanied Pixar features along with later entries in long-running series such as Mission: Impossible and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, yet he has also supplied memorable music for interactive titles and played a central role in the sound of Alias and Lost. Following initial assignments on modest theatrical projects and lavishly orchestrated DreamWorks video games during the closing years of the 1990s, he achieved widespread commercial recognition with his first Pixar assignment, the 2004 release The Incredibles. Ratatouille earned him an Academy Award nomination and a Grammy in 2007; an Emmy arrived the next year for Lost, followed by an Oscar and a BAFTA for the 2009 Pixar film Up. Major studio franchises soon enlisted him, resulting in scores for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011), Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013), Jurassic World (2015), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), and Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017). Parallel Pixar commitments yielded Coco in 2017 and Incredibles 2 the following year. In 2022 he delivered music for The Batman, Jurassic World Dominion, the Pixar feature Lightyear, and Thor: Love and Thunder. That same year he also stepped behind the camera for his first feature-length directorial effort, the Marvel Studios Disney+ Halloween presentation Werewolf by Night.

Born in Riverside Township, New Jersey, on October 10, 1967, Giacchino spent his childhood in nearby Edgewater Park. Early experiments with stop-motion animation revealed that choosing appropriate music gave him the greatest satisfaction. After secondary school he earned a film-production degree from New York’s School of Visual Arts and subsequently pursued musical studies at the Juilliard School at Lincoln Center. To support himself he worked as a publicist for Universal Pictures and Disney in New York; once his coursework ended, he moved to Burbank and joined Disney’s feature-film publicity team. He later transferred to Disney Interactive, where he helped oversee game productions while sharpening his compositional skills. Several Disney Interactive titles featured his music before he joined DreamWorks Interactive in 1997, scoring both the video-game adaptation The Lost World: Jurassic Park and the low-budget thriller Legal Deceit that same year. Additional game work encompassed the Medal of Honor and Call of Duty series. In 2001 J. J. Abrams, impressed by those interactive scores, brought Giacchino aboard for the series Alias. Subsequent collaboration on Lost brought an Emmy for outstanding dramatic score in 2005, and Giacchino also composed for Abrams’s Fringe. A 2004 credit on Star Trek: The Final Darkness preceded an invitation from Brad Bird to score The Incredibles, initiating a sustained Pixar relationship. After Mission: Impossible 3 in 2006, Ratatouille confirmed his stature with an Oscar nomination and a Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Further projects included Cloverfield (2008), Speed Racer, and the 2009 Star Trek directed by Abrams, culminating in the 2010 Academy Award for Up, which also received a Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack Album.

Once Lost concluded its six-season run in May 2010, Giacchino’s music appeared in Let Me In, Cars 2, Super 8, and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, all released in 2010 or 2011. Subsequent assignments encompassed Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), and Tomorrowland (2015). Jurassic World and Inside Out arrived in 2015, while 2016 brought Zootopia, Star Trek Beyond, Doctor Strange, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The year 2017 added Spider-Man: Homecoming, War for the Planet of the Apes, and Coco, whose songs were written by Germaine Franco, Adrian Molina, Robert Lopez, and Kristen Anderson-Lopez while Giacchino’s score received a Grammy nomination. Later releases rounding out the decade included Incredibles 2, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Spider-Man: Far from Home, and Jojo Rabbit. In 2021 he collaborated with his son Mick Giacchino on the score for Extinct from Montreal’s Cinesite Animation and solely scored Spider-Man: No Way Home. March 2022 saw the release of The Batman; Jurassic World Dominion and Lightyear followed in June, with Thor: Love and Thunder arriving the next month. Having previously directed the short film Monster Challenge starring Patton Oswalt, Giacchino made his feature directorial debut with Werewolf by Night, for which he also composed the music.