Tommy Tallarico

Tommy Tallarico has worked in the gaming industry as a designer, product manager, producer, writer, games tester and heads of both music and video departments.

An accomplished musician, Tallarico has been writing music for video games for more than 17 years. He has won over 35 industry awards and has worked on more than 300 game titles. In 1994, he founded the audio production house Tommy Tallarico Studios. Tommy is a cousin of rock star legend Steven Tyler (nee Tallarico) and in 2002 Tallarico’s music was used as the opening song for Aerosmith’s “Girls of Summer” world tour. Titles he worked on include Earthworm Jim, Madden Football, Metroid Prime, Mortal Kombat, Test Drive, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Unreal, and many others.

Tommy hosts, writes and co-produces the video game television show The Electric Playground, which has been on the air since 1997. The Electric Playground won the 2001 Telly Award for “Best Entertainment Cable Program”. In 2006, Tommy also started hosting the Championship Gaming Series for DirecTV.

In 2002, Tallarico teamed up with fellow video game composer Jack Wall to form Mystical Stone Entertainment. Together, they created the audio and video concert experience called Video Games Live.

Tallarico was the first musician to release a video game soundtrack worldwide (Tommy Tallarico’s Greatest Hits Vol. 1 – Capitol Records). He has released seven video game soundtrack albums since, including the James Bond Tomorrow Never Dies, MDK, Advent Rising, and Earthworm Jim Anthology. Tommy is said to be the first person to use 3-D audio in a video game (The Terminator), and was instrumental in bringing digital interactive 5.1 surround to the gaming world. He has written, produced, performed and recorded with a wide range of musicians including the LA Philharmonic, Hollywood Studio Symphony, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Hungarian National Symphony Orchestra, the English National Ballet, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Budapest Chamber Choir, the band “Fear Factory", composer/DJ/artist BT and guitarists Dweezil Zappa and Steve Vai.

Tommy is the founder, Chairman of the Board and CEO of the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.), which is a non-profit organization educating and heightening the awareness of audio for the interactive world. He is an Advisory Board member for the Game Developers Conference, a Governor for the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS/GRAMMY's), a spokesperson for the Entertainment Consumers Association, a member of the International Game Developers Association and a nominating peer panel leader for the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. From 1991 to 1994, he headed Virgin Interactive’s music and video division, and executive produced numerous video game “green screen shoots” for various films, including Demolition Man.