Dave Porter

Dave Porter is a Los Angeles based composer for film and television. He began his classical musical training at the piano at age five, but it was his interest in electronic music as a teen that led him to start composing his own music. He studied both classical and electronic music composition at Sarah Lawrence College under John Yannelli and started his professional career as an assistant in Philip Glass’ recording studio in New York City.

Dave is perhaps best known for his enduring creative relationship with one of Hollywood’s most respected figures – Vince Gilligan. Since the remarkable pilot episode of Breaking Bad in 2007, Dave has written the original music for all of Gilligan’s projects. He scored all 62 episodes of that groundbreaking series and created its iconic opening theme. Actor/ Producer Bryan Cranston stated: “With his music, Dave Porter has created another character for Breaking Bad. Evocative and meaningful, Dave’s work is an essential part of the storytelling.” Since then, Dave has also been behind all of the original music for Breaking Bad’s equally acclaimed spin-off Better Call Saul, helped bring the Breaking Bad universe to the big screen with his original score to Gilligan’s feature film El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, and has recently completed work on the hotly anticipated new series Pluribus which premieres in the autumn of 2025.

2024 saw Dave’s first collaboration with Marvel Studios on the limited series Echo. The first project to be released under the new Marvel Spotlight banner, it was the first Marvel series with a TV-MA rating. “The Marvel team made me feel at home right away and have created a series full of all of the hallmarks that inspire me in a series — real stakes, emotions, consequences, and a world in which all of the characters are always learning and evolving.”

Other credits in recent years include working with James Franco on his masterful film The Disaster Artist and collaborating with documentary visionary RJ Cutler on Murf The Surf, a 4 part series produced by Brian Glazer and Ron Howard. He also worked with creator/showrunner Rebecca Cutter on her groundbreaking Starz series Hightown, as well as AMC’s boundary-defying series Preacher – produced by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and Sam Catlin. Dave also recently wrapped up a decade long run as composer for the James Spader crime thriller series The Blacklist, one of the most successful television dramas of all time spanning more than 200 episodes.

Dave has twice been awarded ASCAP’s Composer’s Choice Award for Best Television Composer — at the inaugural event for the award in 2013, and once again in 2017. He was also bestowed the 2019 Citation Award by his alma mater Sarah Lawrence College for his creative achievements.