"I work very hard and I take it very seriously, and I'm a very committed composer and I get terribly involved in it and very passionate about it. I would hope that comes across."
- Patrick Doyle in 1994

Born in Scotland in 1953, Patrick Doyle graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in 1975, where he studied piano and singing. His first music score was written in 1978, and subsequently, he has written the music for a host of radio, television, theatre and film productions since. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music in 2001. After many years composing for theatre, radio, and television, Doyle joined the Renaissance Theatre Company as composer and musical director in 1987. In 1989 director Sir Kenneth Branagh commissioned him to compose the score for Henry V, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, and they have subsequently collaborated on numerous pictures, including Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, Thor, and Disney's 2015 remake, Cinderella, which represented their eleventh collaboration. Despite transforming his career into one of blockbuster animation and action success in the 2010's, he remains perhaps best known in film music for his early contributions to the Shakespearean community.

Doyle has written the scores for a wide variety of diversified, international feature films, including most notably Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Sense and Sensibility, Indochine, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Brave, and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. His work has led to collaborations with some of the most acclaimed directors in the world, including Regis Wargnier, Brian De Palma, Alfonso Cuaron, Ang Lee, Chen Kaige, Mike Newell and Robert Altman. In November, 1997, Doyle was diagnosed with leukemia. Nonetheless, he completed his score for Great Expectations and continued to work on Quest for Camelot during treatment. By 1998, his career had returned to full swing. In October 2007, Doyle's "Music from the Movies" sell-out concert on behalf of The Leukaemia Research Fund was staged at The Royal Albert Hall. It was directed by Branagh and starred a host of international talent, including Emma Thompson, Sir Derek Jacobi, Dame Judi Dench, and Alan Rickman, among many others.

In December 2013, the London Symphony Orchestra performed a program of his work in a special celebratory concert at the Barbican for the composer's 60th birthday, at which Sir Derek Jacobi, Emma Thompson, and soprano Janis Kelly performed. As of 2015, Doyle has received two Oscar, two Golden Globe and two Cesar nominations, as well as winning the 1989 Ivor Novello Award for Best Film Theme for Henry V. He has also been honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from Scottish BAFTA, the Henry Mancini Award from ASCAP, and the PRS Award for Extraordinary Achievement in Music. He has composed several concert pieces, including Tam O Shanter, commissioned by the Scottish Schools Orchestra Trust; Corarsik, composed for Emma Thompson's birthday and The Thistle and the Rose, commissioned by Prince Charles in honour of the Queen Mother's 90th birthday. His concert suite Impressions of America received its world premiere in July 2012 with the National Schools Symphony Orchestra, of which Patrick is a patron.