About Michael

Michael Benghiat is an award-winning veteran composer, songwriter, music producer, and music educator.

Michael has been writing and producing music for television, film, commercials, and other media for over 34 years, as well as running a successful production music library for almost 20 years.

Raised in Pacific Palisades, CA, Michael received a BA degree in music composition from UCLA.  A recipient of a UCLA Master’s graduate school fellowship, he continued his education not only in classical music composition, but also studied a variety of instruments, including gamelan, koto, sitar, as well as performing in choral groups.

“Studying music formally really paid off for me in my career,” states Michael.  “I was called upon to write in diverse musical styles, and having a thorough understanding of music history, orchestration, and compositional styles made the job much easier”.

During his time at UCLA, Michael played in a couple of rock bands that built up a following to headline status at the Troubadour, Madame Wong’s, the Music Machine, the Central, and other LA clubs.

After the band folded, he decided to pursue a career as a composer for film, TV, and other media.  But it was a long road to success – he experienced about 6 years of “no” whenever he sent out music to music execs, networks, and other professionals.  “It was extremely frustrating”, says Michael.  “I used to keep a binder with all the rejection letters, and that binder grew bigger and bigger each month”.  Finally, around 1990, he got his first yes, for a Greek music track, from Dale Tedesco (son of Tommy Tedesco, who was a member of the Wrecking Crew) and signed his first publishing deal.

In 1991, Michael started The Music Kitchen, a full-service music production company that provided music composing and production services to clients all around the world.

Over his career, Michael has composed and produced music that has appeared on countless TV programs such as Oprah, Dr. Oz, Dance Moms, Amazing Race, House Hunters, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Access Hollywood, 20/20, Jimmy Kimmel Live, One Life To Live, All My Children, Jeff Corwin Experience, Big Brother, Desperate Housewives, Dr. G Medical Examiner, and many others. He has written music for many of the major TV networks, including NBC, ABC, CBS, Disney, The History Channel, E!, Lifetime, and many others.

Michael composed the themes for Oprah, Dr. Oz, and many other hit TV programs. He was the composer for Tarzan: The Epic Adventures for 20 one-hour episodes. He is also the composer for five feature-length films, including Treasure Island (animated), Shadow of the Dragon, Devotion, and Eyes of Fire.

He has composed music for many national ad campaigns for Apple, Pizza Hut, Mitsubishi Motors, J.C. Penney, Blue Cross, John Deere, Disney, HBO, and many others.

As a songwriter, Michael was the Grand Prize winner in an international songwriting contest. He also co-wrote and produced two soundtrack CDs for Sailor Moon, a cult animated series that has continued to be popular today.

Michael is also one of the leading creators of spa/relaxation music, with over 150,000 CDs sold, as well as millions of streams/downloads.

Michael is also the author of several books on playing guitar, as well as a training course for composers looking to write and produce music for the media.

In 2003, Michael founded Audio Addiction Music Library, a 6,000+ track production music library that was a major supplier of music on a global basis. The library licensed thousands of hours of music for TV shows, promos, ad campaigns, and film productions each year before it was sold to Sound Ideas in 2023.

Michael lives in California with his wife Stacy, their cat JoJo Kitty, and their dog Frank, whose life revolves around playing ball…