Alexandre Desplat

Composer Alexandre Desplat has created the soundtracks to over 100 films and developed a reputation as one of cinema's finest music makers. A child prodigy who began playing piano at five, the Frenchman grew up in Paris in the 1960s and studied classical and orchestral music as well as becoming obsessed with Latin, South American and African styles. He made his name making incidental music for French television and cinema, before attracting the attention of Hollywood with the crossover movie The Luzhin Defence in 2000. Noted for his emotive, orchestral compositions, his work on Girl With A Pearl Earring led to soundtracks for the huge blockbusters Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, The Twilight Saga: New Moon and Fantastic Mr Fox, and he was nominated for an Academy Award for the music to The Queen, The King's Speech and The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button. Awarded a Golden Globe for the score to The Painted Veil in 2007, Desplat has gone on to conduct and perform his work with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and win a Grammy Award for The King's Speech in 2012.