Danny Elfman (born May 29, 1953, in Los Angeles, California) is an American composer, singer, songwriter, and musician whose career has moved from experimental theater and new wave rock to some of the most recognizable film and television music of the modern era. He first became widely known as the lead singer and principal songwriter of Oingo Boingo, but his work as a screen composer ultimately established him as one of Hollywood's most distinctive musical voices.
Elfman's early musical development was shaped less by conventional academic training than by curiosity, travel, and performance. In the early 1970s, he joined his brother Richard Elfman in France and became involved with an avant-garde theatrical ensemble. After traveling through Africa, he returned to Los Angeles and helped develop the stage group Mystic Knights of Oingo Boingo. The ensemble combined theatrical spectacle with eccentric arrangements influenced by jazz, cabaret, classical music, and popular song.
Richard Elfman later directed the cult film Forbidden Zone (1980), for which Danny composed the music. The project gave him his first major experience writing a film score. He subsequently became the frontman of a smaller, rock-oriented version of the group, renamed Oingo Boingo. The band became a fixture of the Los Angeles alternative scene, blending new wave, punk, ska, pop, and theatrical performance. Albums such as Only a Lad (1981), Nothing to Fear (1982), and Good for Your Soul (1983) built a devoted following, while songs including "Dead Man's Party" and "Weird Science" gave the group wider recognition. Oingo Boingo continued recording and touring until the mid-1990s.
Elfman's transition into major film composition accelerated through his collaboration with director Tim Burton. After scoring Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), he wrote music for Beetlejuice and Batman, establishing a partnership that would continue across films including Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Mars Attacks!, Sleepy Hollow, Big Fish, Alice in Wonderland, and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. His scores often combine dark orchestral colors, choral writing, rapid rhythmic figures, and a sense of grotesque playfulness. For The Nightmare Before Christmas, he also wrote the songs and performed the singing voice of Jack Skellington.
Beyond Burton's fantasy worlds, Elfman has demonstrated considerable range. He scored Sam Raimi's Darkman, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Oz the Great and Powerful, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, as well as Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting, Milk, and Dead Man's Wire. Other notable projects include Men in Black, Hulk, The Frighteners, Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, The Wolfman, and The Girl on the Train. His television themes for The Simpsons, Desperate Housewives, and Wednesday further extended his reach, with the Simpsons theme becoming one of the most recognizable pieces of television music ever written.
Elfman has received four Academy Award nominations, a Grammy Award for the Batman theme, and multiple Emmy Awards. He has also pursued concert and contemporary classical music, including Serenada Schizophrana and a violin concerto. In 2021, he returned to solo rock with Big Mess, his first major pop-oriented album in decades, followed by the remix and companion release Bigger. Messier. His career remains notable for the way it connects underground performance, popular songwriting, orchestral composition, and the expressive possibilities of film music.