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Award-winning composer Bear McCreary has emerged as one of the most unique musical voices on television with his critically acclaimed score to Sci Fi Channel's smash hit series Battlestar Galactica, starring Academy Award Nominees Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell. In its first two seasons, this series was hailed by Time, Rolling Stone and Newsday as "The Best Show on Television," and won the prestigious Peabody Award. McCreary has also earned his share of acclaim. Kevin Smith's Quick Stop Entertainment proclaimed "McCreary astounds with his mastery in connecting the aural to the narrative... this fresh talent could be the vanguard of the next wave of important American composers. He’s bringing something new to the field of film composition." E! Online described his score as "rich, raw, oddly stirring... kick-ass and powerful as hell." Bear's first soundtrack album, Battlestar Galactica: Season One, broke into Amazon.com's TOP 100 Music Sales and garnered rave reviews, including ranking in Visions in Sound's and Cinescape's "Top 20 Soundtracks of the Year." The following year, tremendous demand for his Battlestar Galactica: Season Two soundtrack album rocketed it into Amazon.com's TOP 30 Music Sales on its first day of release.

Bear is proud to be among the handful of select protégés of late film music legend Elmer Bernstein (The Magnificent Seven, Far From Heaven ). Bear worked with Bernstein for nearly a decade, learning the tools of the trade along the way. Working from Bernstein's own hand-written pencil sketches, Bear completely reconstructed and re-orchestrated Bernstein's 1963 score for Kings of the Sun, starring Yul Brynner. Bernstein himself conducted Bear's Kings concert suite in performances around the world. Their collaboration allowed for the complete score to be available as a soundtrack album for the first time in forty years.

Bear recently completed scoring Warner Bros.' feature Rest Stop, as well as Twentieth Century Fox's Wrong Turn 2 starring Henry Rollins. He has also scored over thirty independent films, including the musical When the Kids Are Away. Showcasing Bear's original songs, lyrics and score, this extraordinary short received industry-wide applause from top professionals, including Steven Spielberg. He scored the Discovery Channel miniseries The 5 Coolest Things starring Matt LeBlanc and has contributed additional music to Miramax's My Baby's Daddy as well as Fox Searchlight's sleeper hit Johnson Family Vacation.

Though he is a skilled pianist, Bear's primary instrument is the accordion. He can be heard on many film soundtracks, including Touchstone Pictures' The Alamo. As the musical director and vocalist / accordionist / keyboardist for The Johnny "Vatos" Tribute to Halloween in October 2005 and 2006, he arranged and conducted over two hours of music for a 16-piece ensemble featuring Oingo Boingo alums Steve Bartek, John Avila, Johnny "Vatos" Hernandez and Sam "Sluggo" Phipps. His unique combination of atypical instrumental background with rigorous classical training (degrees in Composition as well as Recording Arts from the prestigious USC Thornton School of Music) puts him equally at home writing for quirky, off-kilter ensembles, symphonic orchestras - and often both at once.

An active composer for the concert hall as well, Bear remains the only student in USC's history to have two works performed in concert by the USC Symphony during an undergraduate career. His concert works have received recognition from The ASCAP / Morton Gould Young Composers Award and in the summer of 2003, he was one of only six composers selected for the first ASCAP Electronic Scoring Workshop. He is represented by Soundtrack Music Associates.

His turn-ons include science fiction movies and classic rock.