Michael Gordon Shapiro composes for film, games, television, theater, and the concert hall. His passion for music manifests in a romantic sound that blends orchestra, evocative soloists, and organic-sounding electronics.

His scoring credits include movies for Lifetime Movie Networks, theatrical features Home Room (starring Erika Christensen, Victor Garber, and Busy Phillips) and Against Time (starring Robert Loggia and with Craig T. Nelson), and a catalog of projects ranging from intimate documentary to over-the-top thriller. He contributes to top-tier production libraries such as APM and Extreme Music. His music has been used on such television shows as Spongebob Squarepants, Ru Paul’s Drag Race, Nip/Tuck, Undercover Boss, and many others.

Michael devotes as much attention and creativity to his game scores as he does to traditional media. Some credits include the acclaimed VR hits Escaping Wonderland and Down the Rabbit Hole (Cortopia), Star Trek Conquest (Bethesda), Day of Defeat (Valve), Jane’s Attack Squadron (XiCat), Empire Earth 2 (Activision) and Empire Earth 3 (Vivendi), the Wizard Ops series of iOS games (Phyken Media), the real-time strategy titles Empires Apart and Dice Legacy (DESTINYbit) and the award-winning children’s title The Living Letters (Zoesis Studios). He is a contributor to several major music libraries, including APM Endgame and the Syrinscape library for table-top role playing games.

A project of unusual distinction is Identity: Zhongshan Zhuang, an orchestral concerto for Su Chang, one of the world’s top virtuosos of the guzheng (Chinese zither). The concerto has been performed in several cities in mainland China, including in Beijing by the China National Symphony Orchestra, as well as by major US orchestras such as the San Francisco Symphony and Chicago Sinfonietta.

Michael is also an active composer for musical theater; his family show Super Sidekick: The Musical (published by Concord Theatricals) has been performed in front of young audiences throughout the United States, including Off-Broadway in 2012. His musicals Gideon and the Blundersnorp (published by Pioneer Drama Service) and  The Bully Problem have both won numerous awards and nominations, including (for “Gideon”) Best Musical at the 2021 Hollywood Fringe Festival.

A longtime participant in the music community, he’s a regular panelist on The Game Audio Hour and a contributor to the MusicalTalk podcast, where he chats about musical aesthetics and interviews emerging and established artists.

Michael is a multiple-time ASCAP Plus award winner, and is pleased to be a voting member of the Recording Academy.