"Bring Fellini back from the dead, and let me work with him!"
- Elliot Goldenthal in 2000

Elliot Goldenthal was born in Brooklyn, New York, in May 1954 and, as a child, studied piano. His interests included jazz and rock, and once he reached his teenage years, he played piano and trumpet and also sang in a touring blues band. He composed a ballet at age 14 that was given a full performance at his high school. In 1972, Goldenthal came under the influence of Aaron Copland through an introduction by Leonard Bernstein. He stayed at Copland's house and they would play four hands on the piano. Goldenthal, in his learning process, would continuously ask Copland questions of every musical kind. Encouraging him in music were his house-painter father and seamstress mother. He would lock himself in his room and listen to everything from Jimi Hendrix to Charlie Parker to Gustav Mahler. Citing the many classical composers who indulged in considerably varied outputs, he claimed that it is a healthy thing for a composer to be skilled in eclectic and dynamic styles.

With his first major influence being Louis Armstrong, Goldenthal attended the prestigious Manhattan School of Music, where he was a student with both Copland and John Corigliano. Soon, his idol would be legendary composer Bernard Herrmann. After earning both his Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in musical composition, he would write extensively for full orchestras as well as chamber and vocal compositions being published by G. Schirmer. His talents and education have led to a successful career on the small stage, and he now divides his time between composing for films, theatre and the concert hall. Goldenthal's film career began in 1979 with the score for Cocaine Cowboys. After a ten year interval he scored the first of his major movies, Pet Sematary, in 1989. His mastery of a wide variety of styles and types of instrumentation has made him a competent choice to score projects in many genres of film.

In 1980, a mutual friend arranged for Goldenthal to meet the director Julie Taymor, saying, "I know a person whose work is just as grotesque as yours." The match was a success; Goldenthal rose to prominence in 1988 for his Obie Award-winning work on "Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass," a collaboration with Taymor, who would become his wife. The popular, critically acclaimed theatrical oratorio was based on the short story of Horacio Quiroga and the Requiem Mass. First performed in New York City, it subsequently toured festivals in Edinburgh, France, Jerusalem, Montreal, and San Francisco, garnering the American Arts and Letters Richard Rogers Award and the Critics Choice Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1990. The following year, Goldenthal also scored Gus Van Sant's film Drugstore Cowboy, continuing to alternate between stage and screen throughout his early career.

In 1990, he composed "Shadow Play Scherzo," commissioned by ASCAP in honor of Leonard Bernstein's 70th birthday. The piece was performed by the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra at Town Hall in New York City. Later that year, he was commissioned to compose a new work for the Haydn-Mozart Chamber Orchestra commemorating the 75th anniversary of Ebbets Field, former home of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team. Titled "Pastime Variations," it was performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music that same year. His other stage credits include the musical "The Transposed Heads" (based on Thomas Mann's novella, performed at Lincoln Center Theater and the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia), "The King Stag" at the American Repertory Theater, and the musical "Liberty's Taken" (produced at the Castle Hill Festival). Goldenthal has also composed incidental music for Shakespeare's "The Tempest," "The Taming of the Shrew," "Titus Andronicus," and "A Mid Summer Night's Dream."

Goldenthal returned to film in 1992 with his score to David Fincher's Alien 3, and earned his first Academy Award nomination for his work on Neil Jordan's 1994 film Interview With the Vampire. He and Jordan remained regular collaborators in the years to follow, teaming on pictures including Michael Collins (for which he would receive his second Oscar nomination), The Butcher Boy, In Dreams, and The Good Thief. In 1995, Goldenthal would replace Danny Elfman as the composer of the Batman film franchise, scoring Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. Arguably Goldenthal's most acclaimed project is 1996's "Fire Paper Water," an oratorio commissioned by the Pacific Symphony Orchestra in honor of the 20th anniversary of the Vietnam War; the Sony Classical recording of the piece featured soloist Yo-Yo Ma. The oratorio received its East Coast debut with Seiji Ozawa conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra in critically acclaimed performances in Boston, in New York at Carnegie Hall, and at the Kennedy Center.

After reuniting with Taymor on a limited New York stage adaptation of the Carlo Gozzi fable, "The Green Bird," Goldenthal was commissioned in 1997 by the American Ballet Theatre to compose a ballet inspired by Shakespeare's "Othello." It debuted at the Metropolitan Opera that year and was eventually released on DVD in 2003. Choreographed by Lar Lubovitch, it one of the most acclaimed events of the 1997 dance season. In 1999, Goldenthal would score Taymor's first feature film, Titus, providing a diverse musical piece that the composer considers a strong compilation of his styles. Following a massive score for the film adaptation of the Final Fantasy video games in 2001, Goldenthal would once again collaborate with Taymor for Frida in 2002, for which Goldenthal would receive an Academy Award win.

Along with his Oscar recognition, Goldenthal has received Grammy nominations for Batman Forever and A Time to Kill in successive years. He would receive nominations for the Chicago Film Critics Award for Michael Collins, Heat, and The Butcher Boy (also in successive years). In 1998, Goldenthal was honored with the prestigious L.A. Film Critics Award for Best Original Score for his work on The Butcher Boy as well. His other awards include the Arturo Toscanini Award, the New Music for Young Ensembles composition prize, the Stephen Sondheim Award in Music Theater and New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. Living most of the time in New York, Goldenthal continues to maintain his presence on and off the big screen.