Greek-French Alexandre Desplat was honoured with a Golden Globe for the best original score at the 75th annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony.

Nominee Mariah Carey co-announced the winning artist for the soundtrack of director Guillermo Del Toro’s “The Shape of Water.” The film received the most nominations this year, including for Best Motion Picture, Best Actress (Sally Hawkins) and Best Supporting Actress (Octavia Spencer), while Del Toro won the Golden Globe for Best Director.

Among Alexandre Desplat’s fellow nominees were Hans Zimmer (Dunkirk), Jonny Greenwood (Phantom Thread), Carter Burwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) and John Williams (The Post).

Alexandre Michel Gérard Desplat was born and brought up in Paris. He is half French on his father’s side, while his mother came from Greece. His parents met in the United States while they were both studying at the University of California, Berkeley. After their marriage, they moved to Paris where Alexandre was born in 1961.

Desplat started playing piano at the age of five. He also mastered playing the flute and the trumpet. He studied music with Claude Ballif and Iannis Xenakis in France as well as Jack Hayes in the United States.

Since the 1980’s, the composer has worked on numerous films, with his big Hollywood break coming in 2003 with the score for the film “Girl with a Pearl Earring”. He has won an Academy Award for his soundtrack to the film “The Grand Budapest Hotel”, while he has also received seven more Academy Award nominations, eight  César nominations (winning three), seven BAFTA nominations (winning two), seven Golden Globe nominations (winning two), and six Grammy nominations (winning two).

Desplat has composed music for a large number of films, including independent productions and box office hits, such as The Queen, The Golden Compass, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-Parts 1&2, The King’s Speech, Moonrise Kingdom, Argo, The Imitation Game, Unbroken and many more.

Source: thegreekobserver.com