About this Artist
TOMMY TALLARICO is veritable video game industry icon. As one of the most successful video game composers in history, he has helped revolutionize the gaming world, creating unique audio landscapes that enhance the video gaming experience. As a well-recognized on-air television personality, Tommy brings his in-depth knowledge, years of experience, and love of multimedia and video games to the masses.
An accomplished musician, Tallarico has been writing music for video games for more than 15 years. He has won over 20 industry awards for best video game audio and has worked on more than 200 game titles; to date, they total sales of more than 75 million units and two billion dollars. In 1994, he founded Tommy Tallarico Studios, the multimedia industry’s largest audio production house. In video games, television, film, radio, soundtracks, toys and even on floats in the New Year’s Day Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, Tallarico’s music has been heard by hundreds of millions of people around the world. In 2002 Tallarico’s music was used as the opening song for Aerosmith’s "Girls of Summer" world tour. His top titles include The Terminator, Earthworm Jim, Disney’s Aladdin, Cool Spot, Metroid Prime, Maximo, Tomorrow Never Dies, Tony Hawk Pro Skater, Spider-Man & Advent Rising as well as top selling popular game franchises such as Madden Football, Blitz Football, Pac-Man, Knockout Kings, Unreal, Mortal Kombat, Twisted Metal & Time Crisis.
Tallarico has been featured on numerous national and international television shows, appearing repeatedly on CNN and MTV. Currently, Tommy hosts Judgment Day for G4, the 24-hour, seven-day-a-week TV network fully dedicated to the world of video games. He also hosts, writes and co-produces the longest running award-winning video game television show, The Electric Playground, which has been on the air since 1997. The show is syndicated internationally and airs daily in prime-time. The Electric Playground won the 2001 Telly Award for "Best Entertainment Cable Program."
Tallarico was the first musician to release a video game soundtrack worldwide (Tommy Tallarico’s Greatest Hits Vol. 1 – Capitol Records). He has released six video game soundtrack albums since, including the highly acclaimed Advent Rising. Tommy was also the first to use 3-D audio in a game (Q-Sound) and was instrumental in bringing true digital interactive surround 5.1 to the gaming industry. In 1999, he helped secure official recognition of video game music by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) and the Grammys. Also in 1999 he co-designed the award winning boxing game "Knockout Kings" for the N64 with Electronic Arts which went on to win the "Best Console Sports Product of 1999" by the A.I.A.S.
Tommy has worked in the games industry as a games tester, product manager, producer, writer, designer and heads of both music and video departments. He is the founder and president of G.A.N.G. (Game Audio Network Guild), which is a non-profit organization educating and heightening the awareness of audio for the interactive world (www.audiogang.org). Tommy is an advisory board member for the Game Developers Conference, a NARAS governor, a proud member of the International Game Developers Association and a nominating committee member for the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.
Tommy has consulted for Fortune 500 companies such as Intel, Sony, Microsoft and Apple as well as audio companies including DTS, Dolby, Roland, THX and Creative Labs. He has given lectures and speeches all over the world on audio and video games and also teaches courses and has been the guest speaker at many schools, organizations & universities such as UCLA, USC & Full Sail University.
The IDG video game industry white paper mentions Tommy as one of the people who contributed the most to the advancement and growth of the industry in 2003.