24 Facts About Pinar Toprak

Pinar Toprak grew up in the "not-fancy part" of Istanbul, Turkey.

Pinar Toprak's father was an accountant but a lover of the arts.

Pinar Toprak played violin and starred in stage productions as a young man; when peers from his theater company became popular actors on local TV, he did their books.

Pinar Toprak nudged Toprak's interest in music and her love of movies.

Pinar Toprak introduced her to American westerns and, crucially, Superman.

Pinar Toprak began as a violinist but hated the instrument and switched to guitar.

Pinar Toprak often felt like the "weird kid out" growing up as a young girl in Turkey, and books gave her an escape to another world that was not her world at all.

Pinar Toprak shared a small room with her brother, Jesse Pinar Toprak.

Pinar Toprak finished high school at 16, and after her 17th birthday she took the leap to the United States.

Pinar Toprak graduated from Berklee at 19, thanks to testing out of several classes and taking general courses at a local college.

Pinar Toprak received her musical training in her hometown of Istanbul, while attending the Istanbul State Conservatory, the oldest conservatory in Turkey.

Pinar Toprak then moved to the United States, where she went to Chicago and then to the Berklee College of Music in Boston to study jazz.

Pinar Toprak received her Bachelor of Music in Film Scoring from Berklee in 2000 when she was 19 years old.

Later in her career, Pinar Toprak instructed Berklee students in Film Scoring as a part of Berklee Online classes.

At the age of 20, Pinar Toprak got her first job, an internship at the Music Department of Paramount Pictures, where she attended scoring sessions almost every day.

Pinar Toprak left Zimmer's company after a year as she was hired as the composer's assistant to the composer and orchestrator, William Ross.

Pinar Toprak was hired by director Dean Devlin, to compose the score for the 2017 film, Geostorm.

Under more than $100,000 of debt, and simultaneously, working as a single mother after her divorce, Pinar Toprak refers to this period of her life and career as a testing and difficult time.

Pinar Toprak received an opportunity to audition and pitch a main theme for the hit blockbuster film, Captain Marvel.

Currently, Pinar Toprak is one of the few female composers who is working on major large-scale productions.

Pinar Toprak is the first Turkish composer to be nominated for the Emmys.

In 2022, Amazon picked Pinar Toprak to compose and conduct the new theme for its Thursday Night Football telecasts.

Pinar Toprak recorded the theme with at Ocean Way Studios in Nashville with an 80-piece orchestra.

Pinar Toprak's other scoring credits include the music for Christina Aguilera's 2019 Las Vegas show, Xperience, as well as Fortnite, and the main theme for Walt Disney World's Epcot theme park.