Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman was born in 1953, in Los Angeles, California, where he currently resides. Over the last 20 years, he has established himself as one of Hollywood’s leading film composers. Elfman has written close to 50 film scores featuring his unique sound, including Batman, Spider-man, Men in Black, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. In addition to these signature soundtracks, he has scored such diverse films as Big Fish, Good Will Hunting, Dolores Claiborne, Midnight Run, To Die For, Dead Presidents, Sommersby and Chicago. For television, Elfman created the infectious themes to The Simpsons and Desperate Housewives. His honors include a Grammy, an Emmy and three Academy Award nominations.

Elfman’s first experience in performing and composition was for a French theatrical troupe, “Le Grand Magic Circus,” at the age of 18. The following year, he collaborated with his brother Richard performing musical theatre on the streets of California. Elfman then worked with a “surrealistic musical cabaret” for six years, using this outlet to explore multifarious musical genres. For 17 years he wrote and performed with rock band Oingo Boingo, producing such hits as “Weird Science” and “Dead Man’s Party.”

In 2005, Elfman worked with longtime collaborator Tim Burton on the films Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the stop-motion animated musical Corpse Bride. Other projects include the scores for Paramount’s adaptation of Charlotte’s Web, Disney’s Meet the Robinsons, Universal’s The Kingdom and Errol Morris’ documentary, Standard Operating Procedure.

Danny’s first composition for Ballet, entitled Rabbit and Rogue had it’s ABT World Premiere at The Metropolitan Opera House, at Lincoln Center in New York City in June of 2008. The ballet was choreographed by Twyla Tharp and commissioned by American Ballet Theater.

Danny’s recent projects include Guillermo Del Toro’s Hellboy 2, Timur Bekmambetov’s Wanted starring Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman, and Gus Van Sant’s Milk.