Steve Jablonsky (born October 9, 1970) is an American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

for

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

, and

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

s, best known for his musical scores in the ''Transformers'' film series, ''

Desperate Housewives ''Desperate Housewives'' is an American mystery comedy-drama television series created by Marc Cherry, and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. It aired for eight seasons on ABC from October 3, 2004, until May 13, 2012, for a tota ...

'', and '' The Sims 3''. Some of his frequent collaboration partners include film directors

Michael Bay Michael Benjamin Bay (born February 17, 1965) is an American film director and producer. He is best known for making big-budget high-concept action films with fast cutting, stylistic cinematography and visuals, and extensive use of special eff ...

and

Peter Berg Peter Berg (born March 11, 1964) is an American director, producer, writer, and actor. His directorial film works include the black comedy '' Very Bad Things'' (1998), the action comedy '' The Rundown'' (2003), the sports drama '' Friday Night ...

, and fellow composer

Hans Zimmer Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, five Grammy Awards, and has been nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards, Emmy Awards and a Tony ...

Early life

Jablonsky's mother was born in a Japanese internment camp. He went to the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

for college and studied computer science at first, but switched to music composition a year later. After graduation, he became an intern at

's Remote Control Productions after

cold calling Cold calling is the solicitation of business from potential customers who have had no prior contact with the salesperson conducting the call. It is an attempt to convince potential customers to purchase the salesperson's product or service. Gene ...

the studio to ask if they needed any help. During that time, Jablonsky met

Harry Gregson-Williams Harry Gregson-Williams (born 13 December 1961) is a British composer, conductor, orchestrator, and record producer. He has composed music for video games, television and films including the ''Metal Gear'' series, '' Spy Game'', '' Phone Booth' ...

, a fellow composer of Zimmer, and started working as his assistant. Later, he became more engaged with Zimmer and started composing for works such as ''

'' and the ''Transformers'' film series.

Career

Jablonsky has composed the

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

s to the films ''

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'' (2003), ''

Steamboy is a 2004 Anime, Japanese animated steampunk action film directed and co-written by Katsuhiro Otomo, produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks, Sunrise, it is his second major anime as a director, following ''Akira (1988 film), Akira'' (1988). The fi ...

'' (2004), '' The Island'' (2005), ''

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Tomy, Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the heroic Autobots and the villainous Decepticons, two Extraterrestrials in fiction, alien robot fac ...

'' (2007), '' D-War'' (2007), '' Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'' (2009), '' Transformers: Dark of the Moon'' (2011), ''

Battleship A battleship is a large, heavily naval armour, armored warship with a main battery consisting of large naval gun, guns, designed to serve as a capital ship. From their advent in the late 1880s, battleships were among the largest and most form ...

'' (2012), ''

Ender's Game ''Ender's Game'' is a 1985 military science fiction novel by American author Orson Scott Card. Set at an unspecified date in Earth's future, the novel presents an imperiled humankind after two conflicts with an insectoid alien species they ...

'' (2013) (replacing renowned film composer

James Horner James Roy Horner (August 14, 1953 – June 22, 2015) was an American film composer. He worked on more than 160 film and television productions between 1978 and 2015. He was known for the integration of choral and electronic elements alongside tr ...

), '' Transformers: Age of Extinction'' (2014), and '' Transformers: The Last Knight'' (2017). He was also a contributor on '' Team America: World Police'' (2004) among many others. In addition, he helped compose some of the music to the

'' Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty'' and composed the theme music for BBC's '' Seven Wonders of the Industrial World'' in 2003. He also has written music for the television show ''

'' (2004 - 2012) since the fourth episode. His track "Trailblazing" served as the opening theme for WrestleMania X8 and

WrestleMania XIX WrestleMania XIX was a 2003 professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) List of WWE pay-per-view events, event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was the 19th annual WrestleMania and took place on March 30, 2003, at T-Mobile Park, ...

, as well as the soundtrack to the TNA Hall of Fame induction of Sting. Jablonsky also wrote the music for '' Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars'', taking the place of the former ''

Command & Conquer ''Command & Conquer'' (''C&C'') is a real-time strategy (RTS) video game franchise created and originally developed by Westwood Studios and currently owned by Electronic Arts. The first game was one of the earliest of the RTS genre, itself ba ...

'' music composer Frank Klepacki who was unable to write the game's score due to his involvement with '' Universe at War: Earth Assault''. Jablonsky has worked for Harry Gregson-Williams at Media Ventures, the music production company which was conceived and founded by

Jay Rifkin Jay Rifkin is an American record and film producer. Rifkin co-founded the company Media Ventures with Hans Zimmer, a childhood friend. As CEO of the company from 1988,Hans Zimmer Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, five Grammy Awards, and has been nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards, Emmy Awards and a Tony ...

, for seven years. His most recent projects include the scores for the South Korean film '' D-War'', '' Gears of War 3'' for the

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...

gaming console, and music for '' The Sims 3''. Currently, Jablonsky is employed at Zimmer's studio, Remote Control Productions, having been mentored by the company's members Zimmer and Nick Glennie-Smith, as well as former members

and Klaus Badelt. Additionally, Jablonsky was very recently invited in September 2024 by rock band Weezer to write some of the music they performed in their Voyage to the Blue Planet Tour. In February 2015, Jablonsky was hired to compose the score for the film ''

The Last Witch Hunter ''The Last Witch Hunter'' is a 2015 American fantasy action film directed by Breck Eisner and written by Cory Goodman, Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, and based on the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' campaigns of Vin Diesel's Melkor the Witch-Hunter. T ...

''. He also composed the soundtrack for '' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows'', the sequel to ''

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' (''TMNT'') is an American media franchise created by comic book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It follows Leonardo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Leonardo, Donatello (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), D ...

'', and the 2016

film ''

Deepwater Horizon ''Deepwater Horizon'' was an ultra-deepwater, Dynamic positioning, dynamically positioned, Semi-submersible platform, semi-submersible offshore drilling Oil platform, rig owned by Transocean and operated by the BP company. On 20 April 2010, ...

'', starring

Mark Wahlberg Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg (born June 5, 1971), formerly known by his stage name Marky Mark, is an American actor, producer, and former rapper. Mark Wahlberg filmography, His work as a leading actor, leading man spans the Comedy film, come ...

and

Kurt Russell Kurt Vogel Russell (born March 17, 1951) is an American actor. He began his career as a child actor before transitioning to leading roles as an adult in various genres such as action adventures, science-fiction, westerns, romance films, co ...

Filmography

Film

Additional music credits

Television

Video games

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jablonsky, Steven 1970 births Living people 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American composers 21st-century American male musicians American film score composers American male film score composers American male television composers American musicians of Japanese descent American people of Polish descent American television composers American video game composers DreamWorks Animation people La-La Land Records artists Musicians from Los Angeles University of California, Berkeley alumni Varèse Sarabande Records artists