Age: 47
male
Emmy Award winning composer Bear McCreary was first launched into pop culture with his groundbreaking score to the hit series Battlestar Galactica, that was lauded by Variety as “the most innovative music on TV today.” It “fits the action so perfectly, it’s almost devastating: a sci-fi score like no other” (NPR). Io9.com ranked McCreary one of the Ten Best Science Fiction Composers of All Time, and recently WIRED Magazine declared him one of only five “Secret Weapons” of the television industry. McCreary was recently voted “Composers’ Choice Composer of the Year – Television” by his peers in ASCAP, the first award of its kind. Bear has conducted orchestral performances of his music throughout North America and Europe, appearing at Fimucité in Tenerife, and the International Film Music Festival in Úbeda, Spain. In July 2014, his music was performed by the L.A. Philharmonic and L.A. Master Choraleat the Hollywood Bowl, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. Attending the prestigious Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, Bear completed degrees in composition and recording arts. However, his professional training came from film music legend Elmer Bernstein (The Magnificent Seven, To Kill a Mocking Bird). Bear was one of Bernstein’s select protégés, and learned the tools of the trade working with and orchestrating for the maestro. Bear spent his childhood immersed in film and television music; he is delighted now to contribute back to the genres that inspired him.
In a world where ancient kingdoms fracture and the long-forgotten shadow of absolute evil begins to stir, J.R.R. Tolkien’s foundational masterpiece is reborn as a gritty, deeply atmospheric television epic. The Lord of the Rings tracks a continuous, multi-front chronicle of structural political decay, human endurance, and psychological trauma. At the center of this crumbling world is a deceptively simple domestic relic: the One Ring, a suffocating artifact forged by the Dark Lord Sauron that holds the power to enslave all of Middle-earth. When the burden of destroying this living malice unexpectedly falls upon Frodo Baggins, a comfortable and literate bachelor from the sheltered Shire, he is dragged out of his idyllic life into a harsh, unforgiving continental war. To aid him, a fragile alliance—the Fellowship—unites representatives of the world's fading races, including the weary wizard Gandalf, the exiled ranger Aragorn running from his ancestral royal bloodline, and the desperate frontline commander Boromir. Spanning three seasons, each adapting one full volume of the original text with unprecedented fidelity, the narrative evolves from the slow-burn psychological horror of a flight through the wilderness into a sweeping, fatalistic clash of civilizations. The series restores long-lost literary milestones, exploring the ancient, alien terrors of Tom Bombadil and the Barrow-wights, the visceral battlefield attrition of Helm’s Deep, and the tragic internal rot that fractures the characters. Ultimately, it is a story that rejects traditional action-hero archetypes, focusing instead on the bittersweet sunset of the immortal Elves, the heavy toll of spiritual radiation on the vulnerable, and the unyielding, ground-level loyalty of two Hobbits walking directly into the ash-choked heart of Mordor.
