Biography
Bear McCreary is an American composer of soundtracks for film, television and video games. Born on 17 February 1979 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, he was raised in Bellingham, Washington, and graduated from the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music with degrees in composition and recording arts. He studied under film composer Elmer Bernstein, for whom he also reconstructed and re-orchestrated the 1963 score for Kings of the Sun.
McCreary first gained prominence with his score for the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica (2004–2009). His other notable television work includes The Walking Dead (2010–), Outlander (2014–), Black Sails (2014–2017) and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022–). Film credits include 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016), Happy Death Day (2017), The Cloverfield Paradox (2018) and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019). He has also composed for the God of War video-game series.
McCreary has received multiple Emmy Awards, including for the main title theme of Da Vinci’s Demons and for his work on Outlander. He is married to singer and collaborator Raya Yarbrough.
