Described as the U.K.'s answer to
Bear McCreary,
Murray Gold is one of the most successful TV composers of the last decade. Born in Portsmouth in 1969,
Gold started playing the piano at the age of six, and in his teens he arranged for high-school brass ensembles. After studying History at Cambridge University, he worked on a theater production at the Edinburgh Festival and became a scriptwriter for Channel 5 before his first score of a BBC-TV adaptation of
Vanity Fair launched his composing career. A regular stalwart of writer
Russell T. Davies,
Gold provided the soundtracks for
Queer as Folk and
Casanova, and in 2005 he became the musical director of the revamped
Doctor Who, creating a new arrangement for its iconic theme tune. Since then, five compilation albums featuring the music for the sci-fi series have been released. Featuring vocal contributions from soprano
Melanie Pappenheim and
the Divine Comedy's
Neil Hannon, the collections have become the biggest-selling TV soundtracks in the U.K. In 2010 he performed at
The Proms and arranged and orchestrated two live
Doctor Who concerts at Cardiff's Millennium Centre and London's Royal Albert Hall.
Gold has also scored several movies, including
Death at a Funeral and
Alien Autopsy, and wrote the soundtrack to
Doctor Who spinoffs
Torchwood and
The Sarah Jane Adventures. ~ Jon O'Brien, Rovi
