Michael Whalen, born in 1965 in Long Island, New York, is an American composer who attended Berklee College of Music and University of Maryland/College Park before moving to New York City in 1987. Whalen's career took off when he began working at Elias Associates, contributing to national advertisements for major brands. His breakthrough came with the PBS television series Childhood in 1990. He founded Michael Whalen Music, LTD in 1995 and scored numerous films for National Geographic, Discovery Channel, and PBS. In 1997, he won his first Emmy Award for HBO's “How Do You Spell God?”. Whalen has composed over 650 television and film scores, including the soundtracks for Veronika Decides to Die (2008) and Cargo (2011).
