Biography

Didier Lean Rachou is the award-winning composer for both the 16-time Emmy winning series Deadliest Catch (2005) and Gold Rush (2010). He won ASCAP's 2017 TV Composer of the Year award. In 2025, Didier won his 33rd ASCAP Screen Music Award. He received a French knighthood in 2019, joining the Order of Arts and Letters.

Didier's feature film credits include Powder Blue (2009) starring Academy Award-winners Forest Whitaker and Eddie Redmayne, How to Rob a Bank (and 10 Tips to Actually Get Away with It) (2007) starring Erika Christensen, Moving McAllister (2007) starring Mila Kunis and MGM's Her Best Move (2007). 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 state-of-the-art NYC studio to a historical and inspiring 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 (1998) (HBO). In bringing his big screen sensibilities to the small screen with Storm Chasers (2007) (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 (2012) (Discovery) to the Michael Bay-produced series Billion Dollar Wreck (2016) (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). 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 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.
- IMDb mini biography by: Jean-François de Larra

He is married to Lucy Lean, niece of director David Lean (winner of 2 Academy Awards for Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and also nominated for 9 other Oscars).

While in his teens in New York City, he taught guitar lessons to members of The Strokes.

He has been a Grammy voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) since 2000.

His father is a world-renowned French chef who owned Manhattan's famed La Côte Basque restaurant.

He has been an Emmy voting member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS) since 2012.