Rachel Mary Berkeley Portman,
FilmReference.com

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(born 11 December 1960) is an English composer who is best known for scoring films.

Early life and education

Portman was born in Haslemere in Surrey, England, the daughter of Sheila Margaret Penelope (née Mowat) Portman and Berkeley Charles Berkeley Portman. She was educated at Charterhouse and became interested in music from a young age, beginning composing at the age of 14. After finishing school, Portman studied Music at Worcester College,

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...

. It was here that her interest in composing music for films began as she started experimenting with writing music for student films and theatre productions.

Career

Portman's career in music began with writing music for drama in BBC and Channel 4 films such as '' Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit'',

Mike Leigh Mike Leigh (born 20 February 1943) is an English film and theatre director, screenwriter and playwright. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and further at the Camberwell School of Art, the Central School of Art and Design ...

's '' Four Days in July'' and

Jim Henson James Maury Henson (September 24, 1936 – May 16, 1990) was an American puppeteer, animator, cartoonist, actor, inventor, and filmmaker who achieved worldwide notice as the creator of The Muppets and '' Fraggle Rock'' (1983–1987) an ...

's '' Storyteller'' series. Since then, Portman has written over 100 scores for film, television and theatre. Her other works include a children's opera, '' The Little Prince'' (which was later adapted for television) and '' Little House on the Prairie'', a

musical Musical is the adjective of music Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact def ...

based upon the Laura Ingalls Wilder books '' Little House on the Prairie'' (2008). Portman was commissioned to write a piece of choral music for the BBC Proms series in August 2007 called ''The Water Diviner's Tale''.

Awards and honours

Portman's first award was received as the result of scoring "a large body of work" for '' The Storyteller'', for which she received the Anthony Asquith Award from the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

. Later, Portman became the first

female composer Women composers of Western classical music are disproportionately absent from music textbooks and concert programs that constitute the Western canon, even though many women have composed music. The reasons for women's absence are various. The ...

to win an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment in ...

in the category of Best Musical or Comedy Score (for ''

Emma Emma may refer to: * Emma (given name) Film * Emma (1932 film), ''Emma'' (1932 film), a comedy-drama film by Clarence Brown * Emma (1996 theatrical film), ''Emma'' (1996 theatrical film), a film starring Gwyneth Paltrow * Emma (1996 TV film), '' ...

'' in 1996). Portman was also nominated for Academy Awards for her scores for '' The Cider House Rules'' in 1999 and '' Chocolat'' in 2000. On 19 May 2010, she was given the Richard Kirk Award at the BMI Film & TV Awards for her contributions to film and television music. Portman is the first woman to receive the honour. Portman was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(OBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours. In 2015, Portman received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie, or a Special for her work on

Bessie Bessie is a feminine given name, often a diminutive form (hypocorism) of Elizabeth, Beatrice and other names since the 16th century. It is sometimes a name in its own right. Notable people with the name include: People *Bessie Abott (1878-191 ...

. 2022 she was honoured with the Career Achievement Award at the Zurich Film Festival.

Personal life

Portman married producer Uberto Pasolini in 1995, but the couple divorced in 2006; they have three children.

Filmography

*'' Privileged'' (1982) *''Reflections'' (1984) *''Last Day of Summer'' (1984) *'' Four Days in July'' (1985) *''Sharma and Beyond'' (1986) *''Good as Gold'' (1986) *'' A Little Princess'' (1986) *''1914 All Out'' (1987) *''The Short and Curlies'' (1987) *''The Falklands War: The Untold Story'' (1987) *''90 Degrees South'' (1987) *'' The Storyteller'' (1988) TV Series *''Loving Hazel'' (1988) *''Sometime in August'' (1988) *''

The Woman in Black ''The Woman in Black'' is a 1983 gothic horror novel by English writer Susan Hill. The plot concerns a mysterious spectre that haunts a small English town. A television film based on the story, also called '' The Woman in Black'', was produ ...

'' (1989) *''Young Charlie Chaplin'' (1989) *'' Monster Maker'' (1989) *''Living with Dinosaurs'' (1989) *''

Precious Bane ''Precious Bane'' is a historical romance by Mary Webb, first published in 1924. It won the Prix Femina Vie Heureuse Prize in 1926. Synopsis The story is set in rural Shropshire during the Napoleonic Wars. It is narrated by the central charac ...

'' (1989) (TV) *'' Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit'' (1990) *'' Shoot to Kill'' (1990) *'' Life Is Sweet'' (1990) *''The Storyteller: Greek Myths'' (1990) *'' The Widowmaker'' (1990) *'' Where Angels Fear to Tread'' (1991) *'' Antonia and Jane'' (1991) *''

Flea Bites Flea, the common name for the order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult fleas grow to about long, ar ...

'' (1991) (TV) *'' Elizabeth R: A Year in the Life of the Queen'' (1992) (TV) *'' Used People'' (1992) *''Mr Wakefield's Crusade'' (1992) (TV) *'' Rebecca's Daughters'' (1992) *'' The Cloning of Joanna May'' (1992) *'' Friends'' (1993) *'' The Joy Luck Club'' (1993) *'' Benny & Joon'' (1993) *'' Ethan Frome'' (1993) *'' Great Moments in Aviation'' (1993) *'' The Road to Wellville'' (1994) *'' Only You'' (1994) *''

Sirens Siren or sirens may refer to: Common meanings * Siren (alarm), a loud acoustic alarm used to alert people to emergencies * Siren (mythology), an enchanting but dangerous monster in Greek mythology Places * Siren (town), Wisconsin * Siren, Wisco ...

'' (1994) *'' War of the Buttons'' (1994) *'' To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar'' (1995) *'' Palookaville'' (1995) *''

Smoke Smoke is a suspension of airborne particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with the quantity of air that is entrainment (engineering), entrained or otherwise mixed into the mass. It is commo ...

'' (1995) *'' A Pyromaniac's Love Story'' (1995) *'' Marvin's Room'' (1996) *''

'' (1996) (Won the

for Best Musical or Comedy Score) *'' The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1996) *'' Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas'' (1997) *'' Addicted to Love'' (1997) *'' Beloved'' (1998) *'' Home Fries'' (1998) *'' The Cider House Rules'' (1999) (

Nomination for Best Original Score) *''

Ratcatcher A rat-catcher is a person who kills or captures rats as a professional form of pest control. Keeping the rat population under control was practiced in Europe to prevent the spread of diseases, most notoriously the Black Death, and to prevent dam ...

'' (1999) *'' The Other Sister'' (1999) *'' Chocolat'' (2000) (

Nomination for Best Original Score) *'' The Legend of Bagger Vance'' (2000) *''The Closer You Get'' (2000) *'' The Emperor's New Clothes'' (2001) *'' Nicholas Nickleby'' (2002) *''

The Truth About Charlie ''The Truth About Charlie'' is a 2002 mystery film. It is a remake of ''Charade'' (1963) and an homage to François Truffaut's ''Shoot the Piano Player'' (1960) complete with the French film star Charles Aznavour, making two appearances singing h ...

'' (2002) *'' Hart's War'' (2002) *'' Mona Lisa Smile'' (2003) *'' The Human Stain'' (2003) *'' The Manchurian Candidate'' (2004) *''Lard'' (2004) *'' Oliver Twist'' (2005) *''Define Normal'' (2005) *'' Because of Winn-Dixie'' (2005) *'' Infamous'' (2006) *'' The Lake House'' (2006) *''H2Hope: The Water Diviner's Tale (Musical, BBC Prom 57)'' (2007) *'' The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2'' (2008) *'' The Duchess'' (2008) *'' Grey Gardens'' (2009) *'' Never Let Me Go'' (2010) *''

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan ''Snow Flower and the Secret Fan'' is a 2005 novel by Lisa See set in nineteenth-century China. In her introduction to the novel, See writes that Lily, the narrator, was born on June 5, 1824—"the fifth day of the sixth month of the third year ...

'' (2010) *'' One Day'' (2011) *'' Bel Ami'' (2011; shared scoring credit with Lakshman Joseph De Saram) *'' The Vow'' (2012; some of the film also scored by Michael Brook) *'' Private Peaceful'' (2012) *''

Still Life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...

'' (2013) *''

Paradise In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in paradis ...

'' (2013) *'' Girl Rising'' (documentary) (2013) *'' The Right Kind of Wrong'' (2013) *'' Belle'' (2013; wide release 2014) *'' Dolphin Tale 2'' (2014) *''

'' (2015) (won the

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited Series, Movie, or Special) *''Mog's Christmas Calamity'' (2015) *''

Despite the Falling Snow ''Despite the Falling Snow'' is a 200bookby Shamim Sarif. It was first published on May 4, 2004 through Headline Book Publishing and is set during two different time periods. One part of the story is set in 1950s Moscow, Russia during the Cold W ...

'' (2016) *'' Their Finest'' (2016) *'' Race'' (2016) *'' A Dog's Purpose'' (2017) *''Mimi and the Mountain Dragon'' (2019) *''

Godmothered ''Godmothered'' is a 2020 American fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Sharon Maguire, written by Kari Granlund and Melissa Stack, and starring Jillian Bell and Isla Fisher. The Walt Disney Company first began developing the film in September 20 ...

'' (2020)

References

External links

*
Rachel Portman
at the Danish Filmmusic Society {{DEFAULTSORT:Portman, Rachel 1960 births 20th-century classical composers 20th-century English composers 20th-century English women musicians 20th-century women composers 21st-century classical composers 21st-century English composers 21st-century English women musicians 21st-century women composers Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford Animation composers Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners English classical composers English film score composers English opera composers Women classical composers Women film score composers Women opera composers Georges Delerue Award winners Living people Primetime Emmy Award winners Officers of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Charterhouse School People from Haslemere Varèse Sarabande Records artists