Christian Paul Bacon (born March 17, 1977) is an American composer of film and television scores. He is a four-time

Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Owned and operated by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the P ...

nominee – Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score) for '' Smash'' (2012–13), '' Bates Motel'' (2013–17) and ''

Wednesday Wednesday is the day of the week between Tuesday and Thursday. According to international standard ISO 8601, it is the third day of the week. In English, the name is derived from Old English and Middle English , 'day of Woden', reflecting ...

'' (2022–present); Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music for '' The Tick'' (2016–19).

Early life and education

Bacon was born in

Provo, Utah Provo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Utah County, Utah, United States. It is south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front, and lies between the cities of Orem, Utah, Orem to the north and Springville, Utah, Springville to the south ...

. His parents are members of the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian restorationist Christian denomination and the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement. Founded durin ...

. As a youth, Bacon learned to play piano and saxophone, and from an early age he knew he wanted to be a film composer. He has said, "From the point that I could start thinking about what I wanted to do when I grew up... it was always to write movie music." Bacon received a Bachelor's Degree in music composition from

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

and completed the Scoring For Motion Pictures and Television program at

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

. He interned under film composer

James Newton Howard James Newton Howard (born June 9, 1951) is an American film composer, orchestrator and music producer. He has scored over 100 films and is the recipient of a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, and nine nominations for Academy Awards. His film scores ...

. Bacon cites his internship with Howard as his most valuable musical training, "While I learned a ton from school, my real-world education came under James. It felt like I was on scholarship because I was being paid to learn what it means to be a film composer at the pinnacle of the industry. James gave me my first opportunities on projects that he couldn't fully take on for a variety of reasons, and his endorsement was very comforting to producers who appreciated the work still being performed under his 'umbrella'."

Career

Bacon worked under Howard on several of his scores between 2005 and 2011. His solo debut as a film composer came with the 2007 Lifetime film '' Angels Fall'', for which he composed the main theme. Bacon's first solo feature film score was the thriller ''

Source Code In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer. Since a computer, at base, only ...

''. Bacon has also contributed music to many film and TV productions, including ''

American Hustle ''American Hustle'' is a 2013 American black comedy crime film directed by David O. Russell. It was written by Eric Warren Singer and Russell and inspired by the FBI Abscam operation of the late 1970s and early 1980s. It stars Christian Ba ...

'', '' Avengers: Age of Ultron'', and '' Goosebumps''. Bacon's next project was the

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...

reboot of '' The Tick'', directed by

Wally Pfister Walter C. Pfister (born July 8, 1961) is an American director and former cinematographer. He's best known for his partnership with filmmaker Christopher Nolan, working as a cinematographer in all his films from 2000 to 2012, with his work in ...

. Bacon has been nominated for four

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

s: one for his work on the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

series '' Smash:'', two for this work on the A&E series '' Bates Motel'', three for Amazon Prime series '' The Tick'' and four for

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

series ''

''. Bacon frequently collaborates with

Danny Elfman Daniel Robert Elfman (born May 29, 1953) is an American film composer, singer, songwriter, and musician. He came to prominence as the lead vocalist and primary songwriter for the new wave band Oingo Boingo in the early 1980s. Since scoring his ...

Filmography

Film

Composer of additional music

Television

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bacon, Chris American film score composers Living people American male film score composers 1977 births People from Provo, Utah Brigham Young University alumni University of Southern California alumni