Brian Tyler

Biography

Brian Tyler (born in California in 1972) is an American composer, conductor, arranger and record producer, best known for his scores for film, television and video games. His music is closely tied to some of the most successful action franchises of the last two decades, and his films have grossed billions of dollars worldwide, placing him among the ten highest-grossing film composers of all time.

Tyler developed as a musician early, playing with orchestras, rock bands and choirs and mastering instruments from piano and guitar to bass and bouzouki. After graduating from Harvard, he was encouraged by Robert Kraft to pursue film scoring. His first feature was the independent film Bartender (1997), directed by Gabe Torres. A bigger step came after Frailty (2001), which led William Friedkin to hire him for The Hunted (2003). From 2003 onward he moved into big-budget work with films such as Timeline, Godsend and Constantine.

In the mid-2000s he became closely associated with action cinema. He scored The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, several Fast & Furious films, the first three Expendables films and Rambo (2008). He also wrote music for Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and, together with Danny Elfman, for Avengers: Age of Ultron. His score for Partition (2007), which blended Indian and Middle Eastern music with orchestral writing, shows his interest in mixing musical traditions.

His output extends to television, with Yellowstone among his best-known series, and to video games, including Far Cry 3 and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. He won the IFMCA Composer of the Year award in 2014, and his work on Last Call earned him the first of three Emmy nominations. His legacy rests on a prolific career in studio filmmaking, and he remains active in recent animated and mainstream projects.

Key films

• The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), co-scored with Danny Elfman for one of Marvel's major blockbusters.
• Iron Man 3 (2013), one of his scores within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
• Thor: The Dark World (2013), a film for which he also composed the Marvel Studios logo fanfare.
• Constantine (2005), one of his early big-budget Hollywood scores.