Bear McCreary

Bear McCreary (born 1979) is an American composer of soundtracks for film, television and games.

McCreary has been nominated for six Emmy Awards, earning his first Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series for his work on season one of Outlander in 2015. He has won three, the first for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music for Da Vinci's Demons, and two Children's and Family Emmy Awards for his work on Percy Jackson and the Olympians. He is also a two-time winner of both the British Academy Games Award for Music and D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition for his work on God of War and God of War Ragnarök, and is a four-time Grammy Award nominee.

Early life and education McCreary was raised in Bellingham, Washington. He is the son of author Laura Kalpakian and professor Jay McCreary of University of Hawaii at Manoa. His brother, Brendan McCreary, is also a musician. Bear has directed and produced several music videos for Brendan's band, Young Beautiful in a Hurry. He graduated from Bellingham High School in 1997.

He is a classically trained pianist and self-taught accordionist. He studied under the renowned film score composer Elmer Bernstein during which time he reconstructed and reorchestrated Bernstein's 1963 score for Kings of the Sun. Their collaboration allowed for the complete score to be available as a soundtrack album for the first time in 40 years.

Career Television Battlestar Galactica and Caprica

In 2003, McCreary worked under primary composer Richard Gibbs on the three-hour miniseries which served as a pilot for the reimagined series of Battlestar Galactica. When the show was picked up, Gibbs opted not to devote full-time to the regular series' production, and McCreary became the sole composer. He worked on the series until it reached its conclusion in 2009, scoring over 70 episodes. To date, six Battlestar Galactica soundtrack albums have been released, and have garnered a great deal of critical acclaim and commercial success. The soundtracks for seasons two and three ranked amongst Amazon.com's Top 30 Music Sales on their first days of release. The series has the distinction of having one of the largest orchestras on television.

The score to the finale of season one, "Christopher Chance", used the largest orchestra ever assembled for episodic television, and he took the opportunity to rerecord the main title theme with a new orchestration with this larger ensemble.

In July 2010, he received his first Emmy nomination for the Human Target main title.

In a post on his blog on July 25, 2010, McCreary announced the new creative leadership brought in for season two had not asked him to return for it, and he would be leaving the series.

Black Sails The opening title sequence for Black Sails was composed by McCreary with a backing sea shanty-inspired theme. It accurately features an instrument of the period in the form of the hurdy-gurdy.

Outlander McCreary has composed the score for all seasons of Outlander. The main title was sung by his long-time collaborator and partner, Raya Yarbrough.

In 2015, McCreary was nominated for an Emmy for the pilot Outlander episode "Sassenach" (S01E01; 2014-08-09).

Other series During Comic-Con 2010, Bear McCreary attended panels for AMC's The Walking Dead and NBC's The Cape to announce he would be composing the score for both television series.

On July 15, 2013, McCreary announced that he would compose the score for ABC's series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. On September 4, 2015, McCreary released the official Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. soundtrack publicly.

McCreary served as orchestral producer for the rock opera Metalocalypse: The Doomstar Requiem airing on Adult Swim on October 27, 2013. This is a continuation of the Metalocalypse universe following the band Dethklok. The music features a 50-piece orchestra. The soundtrack was released on October 29, 2013.

McCreary also composed the score for the television series Snowpiercer which premiered on TNT May 17, 2020. Snowpiercer was also distributed online via Netflix.

The score for the Masters of the Universe: Revelation series on Netflix was composed by McCreary

McCreary composed the theme and music for the television series Foundation, an Apple TV+ series adapted from Isaac Asimov's novels. The Season 1 soundtrack was released on September 24, 2021.

The following year, he composed the score for the Amazon Prime Video fantasy television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. McCreary, who wrote the score over a period of 9 months, has been a fan of J. R. R. Tolkien since reading The Hobbit aged 10. He called the job "a dream come true".

Films McCreary worked on several films providing additional music and conducting for My Baby's Daddy and Johnson Family Vacation before striking off on his own and scoring Rest Stop and Wrong Turn 2: Dead End, both direct to video.

After working with Shawn Papazian on Rest Stop: Don't Look Back, the sequel to Rest Stop. McCreary made his theatrical film debut with Step Up 3D.

Following Step Up 3D, he scored three films directed by Joe Lynch, Chillerama, Knights of Badassdom and Everly. Everly 's soundtrack included a duet McCreary sang with his wife, Raya Yarbrough.

McCreary has only worked with a few directors multiple times: Christopher Landon on three films, Happy Death Day, Happy Death Day 2U and Freaky; and director McG twice on Rim of the World and The Babysitter: Killer Queen.

Other notable film scores include Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie, 10 Cloverfield Lane, The Cloverfield Paradox, Child's Play, and Godzilla: King of the Monsters.

McCreary's latest feature scores include Ava, The Babysitter: Killer Queen, Freaky and Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank.

In June 2023, McCreary replaced Thomas Newman as composer for the film The Last Voyage of the Demeter, directed by André Øvredal.

Video games McCreary made an eight-bit rendition of the Dark Void theme, which was, originally, an April fools joke. However, the theme was used for the prequel, Dark Void Zero. He composed all the songs in an eight-bit fashion by connecting the wires on an actual NES console and cartridge to create authenticity.

He arranged James Rolfe's The Angry Video Game Nerd "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" parody "You're a Mean One, Mr. Nerd" for the 2010 Christmas special, with orchestra and eight-bit audio elements.

McCreary also performed with his orchestra live at Sony's E3 2016 press conference throughout the show and composed the score of the 2018 video game God of War, which shifted the God of War series to Norse mythology. He also composed the music for its 2022 sequel, God of War Ragnarök—as well as its 2023 expansion, Valhalla—for which he also plays a minor character in the game, a Dwarf named Ræb (Bear spelled backwards), who plays the Hurdy Gurdy, the same instrument Bear uses throughout the score for the game. He also returned to score the 2026 side game God of War Sons of Sparta. This game returned the series to its original Greek mythology setting, so McCreary drew from Greek folk music, using instruments such as the kithara and aulos, combining them with elements of chiptunes due to the game's retro 2D style.

In 2021, McCreary composed the score for Call of Duty: Vanguard.

The Singularity In February 2024, McCreary announced that a concept album titled The Singularity would be released in May by Sparks & Shadows Records and Mutant. Co-written and co-produced by McCreary’s brother, Brendan McCreary, who also contributes lead vocals to eight songs, the album features performances by Rufus Wainwright, Slash, Serj Tankian, Corey Taylor, Jens Kidman, Joe Satriani, Buck Dharma, Asdru Sierra, Griogair, Kim Thayil, Scott Ian, Brendon Small, Billy Boyd, Eivør, Guthrie Govan and Bryan Beller, Mike Keneally, Ben Weinman, Steve Bartek and John Avila, Warren Fitzgerald, Esjay Jones, Sigurjón Kjartansson, Raya Yarbrough, Mega Ran, and Gene Hoglan, along with spoken-word contributions from the companion graphic novel (published by Image Comics and Black Market Narrative) by actors Lee Pace, Danai Gurira, and Ryan Hurst.

Theater In February 2027, his musical Particle Fever will debut at La Jolla Playhouse. The book is by David Henry Hwang, with music and lyrics co-written by Zoe Sarnak and himself.

Personal life McCreary married singer and songwriter Raya Yarbrough in 2010. They have collaborated on the music of Battlestar Galactica, Outlander, Defiance, and Da Vinci's Demons, among other projects. Their daughter Sonatine, named after the musical term sonatina, was born on June 2, 2014.

Influences McCreary credits composers Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, Danny Elfman, Ennio Morricone, John Williams, Basil Poledouris, and Shirley Walker as being key to his growing up adoring film music. They were his heroes.

Works Films Year Title Director Distributor Notes 2006 Rest Stop John Shiban Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Direct-to-video. 2007 Wrong Turn 2: Dead End Joe Lynch 20th Century Studios Home Entertainment Direct-to-video; first collaboration with Lynch. 2008 Rest Stop: Don't Look Back Shawn Papazian Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Direct-to-video. 2010 Step Up 3D Jon M. Chu Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Theatrical film debut. 2011 Chillerama Adam Rifkin, Tim Sullivan, Adam Green and Joe Lynch Image Entertainment Second collaboration with Lynch. 2013 Europa Report Sebastián Cordero Magnolia Pictures Knights of Badassdom Joe Lynch Entertainment One Third collaboration with Lynch. 2014 Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie Kevin Finn and James Rolfe Indie Rights Everly Joe Lynch The Weinstein Company Fourth collaboration with Lynch. 2016 The Forest Jason Zada Gramercy Pictures The Boy William Brent Bell STX Entertainment 10 Cloverfield Lane Dan Trachtenberg Paramount Pictures First collaboration with Trachtenberg. Colossal Nacho Vigalondo Neon 2017 Unrest Jennifer Brea Shella Films Documentary film. Revolt Joe Miale Vertical Entertainment Rebel in the Rye Danny Strong IFC Films Animal Crackers Scott Christian Sava and Tony Bancroft Netflix Happy Death Day Christopher Landon Universal Pictures First collaboration with Landon. 2018 The Cloverfield Paradox Julius Onah Netflix Tau Federico D'Alessandro Hell Fest Gregory Plotkin Lionsgate Films I Still See You Scott Speer Welcome Home George Ratliff Vertical Entertainment 2019 Happy Death Day 2U Christopher Landon Universal Pictures Second collaboration with Landon. The Professor and the Madman P. B. Shemran Vertical Entertainment Rim of the World McG Netflix First collaboration with McG. Godzilla: King of the Monsters Michael Dougherty Warner Bros. Pictures Child's Play Lars Klevberg United Artists Releasing Eli Ciarán Foy Netflix 2020 Crip Camp Nicole Newnham and James LeBrecht Documentary film. Fantasy Island Jeff Wadlow Sony Pictures Releasing Ava Tate Taylor Vertical Entertainment The Babysitter: Killer Queen McG Netflix Second collaboration with McG. Freaky Christopher Landon Universal Pictures Third collaboration with Landon. 2022 Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank Rob Minkoff and Mark Koetsier Paramount Pictures 2023 We Have a Ghost Christopher Landon Netflix Fourth collaboration with Landon. The Last Voyage of the Demeter André Øvredal Universal Pictures Replaced Thomas Newman 2024 Imaginary Jeff Wadlow Lionsgate Films With Sparks & Shadows 2025 Drop Christopher Landon Universal Pictures Fifth collaboration with Landon. 2026 Rogue Trooper Duncan Jones The Devil's Mouth Jeff Wadlow Amazon MGM Studios

+Additional music and conducting Year Title Director Distributor Notes 2004 My Baby's Daddy Cheryl Dunye Miramax Films Film score conducted by Richard Gibbs. Johnson Family Vacation Christopher Erskin Fox Searchlight Pictures

Television

Video games Year Title Notes 2010 Dark Void Zero Dark Void 2011 SOCOM 4 U.S. Navy SEALs 2012 Moon Breakers 2013 Defiance 2015Assassin's Creed Syndicate: Jack the Ripper 2018 God of War League of Legends Ryze: Call of Power 2020 Star Wars: Tales From the Galaxy's Edge With Joseph Trapanese & Danny Piccione 2021 Call of Duty: Vanguard 2022 God of War Ragnarök Also plays the role of Ræb 2023 Forspoken With Garry Schyman God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla With Sam Ewing and Omer Ben-Zvi 2024 Astro Bot God of War themesScore by Kenneth C. M. Young 2025 Ashes of Creation With Inon Zur 2026 God of War Sons of Sparta TBA God of War Laufey

Awards and nominations