Paul Zaza

Canadian composer and songwriter Paul Zaza started out as a classically trained pianist. Zaza has a degree from the prestigious Toronto Conservatory of Music. Moreover, Paul played bass in a Canadian touring company production of the hit musical "Hair" and toured with the The 5th Dimension in the 1970s. Zaza first began doing film scores in the late '70s. He's worked in a diverse of array of genres that include comedy (Les Motos sauvages (1980), Gas (1981)), drama (Isaac Littlefeathers (1984), which was nominated for a Genie Award for Best Music Score), thriller (Cauchemar Américain (1983), _Blindside_), action (Fatal revenge (1986), Intervention immédiate (1995)), and science fiction (The Vindicator: Frankenstein 2000 (1986), The Pink Chiquitas (1986)). Paul frequently collaborated with director Robert Clark: Among the Clark movies he composed the scores for are Meurtre par décret (1979) (Zaza won the Genie Award for Best Music Score for his terrific score on this particular picture), the first two uproariously raunchy "Porky's" flicks, the delightful Christmas Story (1983), Turk 182 (1985), En toute justice (1987), and both P'tits génies (1999) films. In addition, Zaza has supplied chillingly effective scores throughout the years for such horror features as Le Bal de l'horreur (1980) (he also composed the music for the sequels), Ghostkeeper (1981), Meurtres à la St-Valentin (1981) (this is perhaps Paul's single most spooky and melodic horror film score to date), Curtains, l'ultime cauchemar (1983), Manipulations (1988), Popcorn (1991), The Club (1994), and La créature des ténèbres (1993). Paul also did the theme music for the long-running Nickelodeon children's TV series Mr. Wizard's World (1983). Besides a Genie Award, Zaza has received fourteen SOCAN Awards as well. Paul Zaza has his own state-of-the-art studio called Zaza Sound Productions Ltd.