Gustavo Alfredo Santaolalla (Spanish: [ɡusˈtaβo alˈfɾeðo santaoˈlaʝa]; born 19 August 1951) is an Argentine composer, record producer and musician. He is the recipient of numerous accolades for his works, including two Academy Awards for Best Original Score, a Golden Globe, two Grammy Awards and 17 Latin Grammy Awards. He is known for his minimalist approach to composing and for his influence in the Latin rock music genre.
Involved in music from a young age, he began a professional career in 1967 founding the band Arco Iris, who were influential to the rock nacional genre. Fleeing the rule of the Argentine military junta and the dictatorship of the National Reorganization Process, Santaolalla moved to Los Angeles in 1978. After returning to Argentina in the 1980s and taking a musical sabbatical, he became a leading figure in the rock en español movement, establishing the record label Surco Records within Universal Music and producing records for over 100 artists. Notable records he produced were several from Café Tacuba, including their acclaimed 1994 album Re, Julieta Venegas's 2000 album Bueninvento, and Juanes's 2005 hit single "La Camisa Negra". Santaolalla established the neotango group Bajofondo in 2001.
Music from Santaolalla's 1998 solo album Ronroco caught the attention of filmmakers and led to a career expansion into film scores, beginning with Amores perros (2000), 21 Grams (2003) and The Motorcycle Diaries (2004). Santaolalla rose to fame for creating the scores for Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Babel (2006), for which he received two Academy Awards for Best Original Score in consecutive years. He scored I Come with the Rain (2009) and Biutiful (2010). Santaolalla further gained recognition for his work on The Last of Us game series, composing the 2013 game and its 2020 sequel. In 2014, he composed his first animated film, The Book of Life, and his first Argentine film, Wild Tales. He scored the short film Borrowed Time (2015) and co-composed the documentary Before the Flood (2016). Santaolalla returned to adapt his music for the 2023 The Last of Us TV series and composed an original score for October 2024 showings of the 1931 Spanish-language Dracula film by the Los Angeles Opera.
Not learned in reading or writing musical notation, Santaolalla prefers composing his scores mostly by himself. Favouring instruments like the ronroco, he adopts a minimalistic approach when composing and prefers to capture humanistic elements of performances. He compares his philosophy of favouring minimalism in music to parkour, comparing the calculations of athletes before landing to his measured selection of musical notes before playing them. By contrast, his live performances have been noted for their vibrancy. For his influence in Latin music, Santaolalla was recognized as a BMI Icon during the 15th annual Latin Awards Ceremony in 2008 and received the Latin Grammy Trustees Award in 2023. In his personal life, he has two children with his wife, and is engaged with winemaking.
