Best known for his orchestral and orchestral-rock scores for science fiction and horror films, Tyler Bates has also composed music for television and video game soundtracks, and has written, produced, and played guitar for rock acts including Marilyn Manson. After getting his start in independent film in the early to mid-'90s, Bates eventually began earning credits on major-studio releases like the 2000 remake of Get Carter, the 2004 version of Dawn of the Dead, and his third film for director Zack Snyder, 2009's Watchmen. The 2010s found Bates attached to such blockbuster hits as Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), the first three John Wick films, Deadpool 2 (2018), and Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs Shaw (2019) -- half of those with director David Leitch. In the meantime, he worked on television series including Californication, Marvel's The Punisher, and the horror series The Purge; joined such video game franchises as Watchmen, Transformers, and Killzone; and played over 100 shows with Marilyn Manson before retiring from the band in 2018. Bates continued to work in the alternative rock sector into the 2020s, producing albums for Bush and Alice in Chains' Jerry Cantrell while turning out film scores for Clive Barker's Books of Blood (2020) and the slasher film X (2022).

Born in Los Angeles on June 5, 1965, Tyler Bates grew up in Chicago and was introduced to a wide range of music by his mother. He began composing music as a teenager and eventually moved from Chicago to Los Angeles in 1993 to pursue a career as a film composer. He started out scoring a number of B-movies, beginning with the 1993 science fiction indie Blue Flame. Meanwhile, he was part of the alternative rock band Pet, along with vocalist Lisa Papineau. Pet's 1996 eponymous album debut was executive produced by Tori Amos and released on her Atlantic Records imprint Igloo. In addition, the band was featured on the soundtrack albums The Crow: City of Angels (1996) and The Last Time I Committed Suicide (1997). Bates left Pet in 1997 and began concentrating on film composing full-time following the success of that year's The Last Time I Committed Suicide, which he scored.

He had steady work thereafter, including the films Get Carter (2000), City of Ghosts (2002), and Dawn of the Dead (2004), his first collaboration with director Zack Snyder. Bates subsequently worked with rocker-turned-director Rob Zombie on several of his films, including The Devil's Rejects (2005), Halloween (2007), and Halloween II (2009). During that time span, he rejoined Snyder on the action epic 300 (2006) as well as the DC Comics dystopia adaptation Watchmen (2009), among sci-fi and horror outings with other directors, including a remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. He also made his first forays into video games with 2008's Rise of the Argonauts and the next year's Watchmen: The End Is Nigh.

Bates then reunited with Slither director James Gunn for 2010's Super before working on 2011's Sucker Punch with Snyder. Another redo featuring Bates' music, Conan the Barbarian, also saw release that year, as did Killer Joe, a Tracy Letts-penned dark comedy directed by William Friedkin. The composer's scores for the video games Army of Town: The 40th Day and Transformers: War for Cyberton also appeared early on in the decade. His soundtracks for the games God of War: Ascension and Killzone: Shadow Fall followed in 2013, and Bates worked with Gunn again on the 2013 film Movie 43 before they struck box-office gold with 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy. Bates' rousing orchestral score for the latter landed on several year-end critics lists. That year also saw the end of his seven-season run with co-composer Tree Adams on TV's Californication, just as he joined the crews of Salem and Kingdom. Bates collaborated with Joel Richard on the music the for the crime thriller John Wick, also released in 2014.

In 2015, Bates joined Marilyn Manson's touring band as guitarist after producing and co-writing their 2014 LP The Pale Emperor. "Cupid Carries a Gun" from the album was used as the opening title music of Salem. He eventually returned to the big screen in 2016 with music for The Belko Experiment, and 2017 brought the sequels Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 and John Wick: Chapter 2 (composed again with Joel Richard). That year, Bates also scored Leitch's Atomic Blonde (which featured covers and originals of '80s hits, as well as a Bates/Manson collaboration on the Ministry cover "Stigmata") in addition to horror entry Keep Watching and the sci-fi thriller 24 Hours to Live. After collecting composing, producing, engineering, and mixing credits on another Marilyn Manson album, 2017's Heaven Upside Down, and playing over 100 shows on the accompanying world tour, Bates announced his retirement from the group in early 2018. He closed out the decade with work on the Marvel series The Punisher, The Purge, and Adult Swim's Primal (with composer Joanne Higginbottom), among other TV shows, and on films including Deadpool 2 (with Leitch), Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs Shaw (again for Leitch), and John Wick, Chapter 3: Parabellum.

Although he had retired from touring, Bates returned to the alt-rock realm to co-write and produce Bush's eighth studio album, 2020's The Kingdom. He also produced and performed on 2021's Brighten, the third solo album by Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell. Back in Hollywood, he provided the score for the 2020 horror anthology film Books of Blood before eventually returning to the silver screen for 2022's X by horror auteur Ti West. ~ Marcy Donelson & Jason Birchmeier, Rovi