Biography
Mark Mancina's film scores traverse almost every genre: drama, action, comedy, suspense, and period epic. His honors include three Grammys, an American Music Award, Britain's Ivor Novello Award and a Tony nomination.
Born in Santa Monica, he began his musical training at an early age focusing on classical guitar, classical piano and composition. His scores frequently feature his own performances on piano, guitar, bass, percussion and drums, highlighting unique sounds harvested from a personal collection of traditional, exotic, and custom instruments from around the world.
Recent career highlights include composing the original score for the upcoming Warner Bros. release August Rush, the story of a musical prodigy's search for his parents which culminates in a Central Park concert featuring Mancina's "Rhapsody No. 1 in C Major"; scoring Camille, a romantic fantasy starring Sienna Miller; the recent Antoine Fuqua collaboration, Shooter; co-scoring the CBS primetime drama Criminal Minds; and co-composing the new Walt Disney Pictures logo.
Other projects include the Oscar-winning Training Day, for which he provided a benchmark score that expanded the boundaries of scoring street-wise drama and is widely used as a temp track, while his breakout score for Speed influenced the sound of subsequent action movies. His scores for Twister, Bad Boys, Tarzan and Moll Flanders are among his favorites.
In addition to his work as a film and television composer, Mancina added Broadway to his list of accomplishments when he co-wrote songs, produced and arranged the score for the musical production of The Lion King. In his role as Producer of Music for the Stage, Mancina collaborated with Lebo M and director Julie Taymor to create the distinctive musical atmosphere of the Tony-award-winning show.
Mancina continues to expand his repertoire and his instrument collection. His studios are in Santa Monica.