Game of Thrones composer Ramin Djawadi started as Hans Zimmer's apprentice
Before he wrote the Game of Thrones theme, Ramin Djawadi spent years supplying extra music for other composers' films, including Pirates of the Caribbean and Batman Begins, at Hans Zimmer's Los Angeles studio. Going solo in 2004, he went on to score Iron Man, Pacific Rim and Westworld and win two Emmys.
Djawadi was born in Duisburg, Germany, on 19 July 1974, to an Iranian father and a German mother, and attended the city's Krupp-Gymnasium before studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston. After graduating in 1998 he joined Remote Control Productions, Zimmer's company, and moved to Los Angeles as assistant to the composer Klaus Badelt. He co-wrote music for the video game System Shock 2 in 1999.
His first solo feature was Blade: Trinity in 2004, made with RZA for director David S. Goyer, the start of a long partnership that later included the horror film The Unborn and the TV series FlashForward. In 2005 he did his last background work for Zimmer, on Batman Begins and The Island, and wrote the Emmy-nominated title music for Prison Break. His music accompanies Fly Me to the Moon, an animated feature that was the first ever made solely for 3D release, and six further films for Belgian director Ben Stassen. His Iron Man score earned a Grammy nomination.
HBO picked him for Game of Thrones in 2011. The show brought him a Primetime Emmy in September 2018 for the season finale score titled The Dragon and the Wolf, and a second Grammy nomination for season 7. He went on to write for House of the Dragon, Westworld, 3 Body Problem, Jack Ryan and Fallout, and for films including Pacific Rim, Warcraft, The Great Wall and Eternals, as well as games in the Medal of Honor and Gears of War series.
Both of his Emmy wins came from Game of Thrones; he also holds an Annie Award, for Win or Lose, and has been nominated seven times for Emmys and three times for Grammys. In 2024 Broadcast Music Inc. gave him its BMI Icon Award at its 40th annual Film, TV and Visual Media Awards. He remains based in the United States.
Source: Ramin Djawadi
