Didier Lean Rachou
Composer of Deadliest Catch, Gold Rush, and Sex and The City
Courtesy of Subject
Didier Lean Rachou is the award winning composer for the 16-time Emmy winning series Deadliest Catch (Discovery), the global hit Gold Rush (Discovery) as well as the final season of the multiple Golden Globe and Emmy winning Sex and The City (HBO). With more than 20 feature films and well over 1,000 hours of television behind him, his music is heard worldwide every single day.
To date, Didier is a 16-time ASCAP Film and Television Music Award winner, collecting the ASCAP Most Performed Themes and Underscore honor seven consecutive years in a row. In May 2017, he was recognized with the prestigious ASCAP Composers’ Choice Television Composer of the Year award.
Didier’s feature film credits include Powder Blue starring Academy Award-winners Forest Whitaker and Eddie Redmayne, How To Rob A Bank starring Erika Christensen, Moving McAllister starring Mila Kunis and MGM’s Her Best Move. He has had the privilege to work with such diverse artists as Ashford & Simpson, David Johansen, McCoy Tyner, Ron Carter, Luis Bonfa, Paquito D’Rivera and members of the Pilobolus Dance Theater, amongst many others, as a composer, producer and/or engineer.
After being selected for the prestigious ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop, Didier relocated his NYC studio to a historical Hollywood Hills compound. Within months of moving to Los Angeles, he was scoring key scenes for the Golden Globe and Emmy winning series Sex and The City (HBO). In bringing his big screen sensibilities to the small screen with Storm Chasers (Discovery), Didier has defined the sound of a television genre by scoring several of the highest rated action-adventure unscripted series on cable, from Gold Rush, Deadliest Catch, and Bering Sea Gold (Discovery) to the Michael Bay-produced series Billion Dollar Wreck (History).
Didier received a BA in Composition and Jazz Performance from the Manhattan School of Music and studied composition privately at The Juilliard School. He has been a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (GRAMMY Awards) since 2000 and a voting member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (EMMY Awards) since 2012.
Raised in Europe and New York City, Didier is the son of world-renowned French chef Jean-Jacques Rachou (of La Côte Basque fame). He is married to author and culinary impresario Lucy Lean, niece of two-time Oscar winning director, David Lean. Some fun facts about Didier are that as a teen in NYC, he lived right upstairs from four-time Oscar winner Henry Mancini. During this time, he also taught guitar lessons to Julian Casablacas and Nick Valensi who went on to form The Strokes. He is a relative of the infamous Rachou couple who ran ‘The Beat Hotel’ in Paris, where the major Beat poets would live and create. Didier is also directly related to the noted French painter, Henri Rachou (1856-1944). Henri not only has a street named after him in Toulouse, but was also a friend of Toulouse-Lautrec’s and painted his portrait.
Didier holds dual-citizenship with France and the US. He currently resides in Los Angeles, with his lovely wife, Lucy and their two children.
Watch clips from Deadliest Catch and Sex and The City.
This episode of The Pop Disciple Podcast is hosted by Paul Goldowitz.
Production, Editing, Mixing, Mastering | Paul Goldowitz
Select Cues and Songs Throughout Episode | Didier Lean Rachou
The Pop Disciple Podcast Theme and Outro Music | Paul Goldowitz
Special thanks to Didier Lean Rachou and White Bear PR.