Marty O'Donnell

Marty O’Donnell earned his Master of Music Degree in Composition with honors from USC in 1981. He founded TotalAudio, a Chicago-based commercial music and sound production company, composing scores and jingles for clients including The Flintstone Kids and Mr. Clean.

In 1997, he created sound design for Cyan’s Riven (sequel to Myst) and all audio for Bungie’s Myth series. In 2000, shortly after joining Bungie as audio director and composer, Microsoft acquired the studio. Marty led audio and music for the groundbreaking Halo series, which achieved billions of plays and over 81 million units sold, earning numerous awards including Game Developers Choice, AIAS, and Rolling Stone’s Best Game Soundtrack.

In 2007, he helped guide Bungie’s independence and contributed to Destiny, collaborating with Sir Paul McCartney on Music of the Spheres, recorded at Abbey Road Studios. He later co-founded Highwire Games in Seattle, releasing Golem (2019) for PlayStation VR.

Now based in Las Vegas since 2021, Marty has been married since 1977 and has two daughters and three grandsons.