What is Tommy Tallarico's Net Worth?
Tommy Tallarico is a musician, sound designer, producer, and business executive who has a net worth of $5 million. Tommy Tallarico is best known for composing music for video games. With fellow composer Jack Wall, he created the concert series Video Games Live, which involves a live symphony orchestra playing video game music along with interactive audience segments. Among his many other activities, Tallarico served as CEO of Intellivision Entertainment from 2018 to 2022.
Early Life and Education
Tommy Tallarico was born on February 18, 1968 in Springfield, Massachusetts. As a teenager, he attended Cathedral High School. Tallarico went on to attend Western New England University for a year.
Virgin Mastertronic / Interactive
In 1991, Tallarico moved to Southern California to pursue a career in the video game industry. He took a job selling keyboards at a Guitar Center in Santa Ana, where he just so happened to meet an executive from the video game distributor Virgin Mastertronic. Shortly after that, Tallarico was offered a job as a play-tester at Virgin. After testing such games as "Chuck Rock" and "Robin Hood: Prince of the Thieves," he began working on music and audio for Virgin-distributed games, with his first being the Game Boy version of "Prince of Persia." Tallarico worked on several other games while at Virgin, doing everything from quality assurance to music composing and sound. Among his many credits were "Monopoly Deluxe," "Greg Norman's Golf Power," "Global Gladiators," "The Terminator," and "Heart of the Alien."
Tommy Tallarico Studios
Tallarico left Virgin in 1994 to found his own company, Tommy Tallarico Studios. He has worked on the music and sound for numerous video games since then, including "Earthworm Jim 2," "Golden Nugget," "MDK," "Treasures of the Deep," "Tomorrow Never Dies," "Spider-Man," "The Bard's Tale," "Pac-Man World Rally," and "Flip's Twisted World." Tallarico frequently collaborated with sound designer Joey Kuras on his projects. Notably, the two created an "oof" sound effect for the game "Messiah" that was later used without permission by the game "Roblox." This caused a legal dispute, resulting in the removal of the sound effect from "Roblox" in 2022.
Video Games Live
In 2002, Tallarico and fellow video game music composer Jack Wall founded Video Games Live, a concert series consisting of video game music played live by a symphony orchestra. The first concert was held in the summer of 2005 at the Hollywood Bowl, where the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra performed to an audience of 1l,000. Video Games Live expanded considerably over the subsequent years, becoming an 11-show world tour in 2006 and traveling to over 50 cities by 2009. In addition to the live symphony orchestra, the concerts often feature solo performers. They also include interactive segments in which members of the audience can play video games that are synchronized in real-time by the orchestra. Tallarico has created many of the visuals that are involved. Additionally, he has produced a number of Video Games Live albums.
Intellivision Entertainment
Following the death of Intellivision Productions founder Keith Robinson in 2017, Tallarico purchased a stake in the company. He subsequently became the CEO of the company, renamed Intellivision Entertainment, in 2018. That year, Tallarico announced his intent for the company to release a new video game console called the Intellivision Amico. However, the console was delayed multiple times, and was criticized by many for its shady fundraising tactics and use of NFTs. In early 2022, Tallarico stepped down as CEO of Intellivision but remained the president of the board.
FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty Images
Other Endeavors
Among his other endeavors, Tallarico founded the non-profit Game Audio Network Guild in 2002. Created to honor achievements in video game music and sound, GANG hosts annual awards, of which Tallarico has received many. Elsewhere, Tallarico has done advocacy work for PETA.
Allegedly Misleading Claims
Tallarico has been controversial for making multiple allegedly misleading claims about his life and work. He has apparently misrepresented the number of video games he's worked on and the number of Guinness World Records he's won. He also apparently falsely claimed that he was the first American to work on the "Sonic the Hedgehog" video game franchise.
Real Estate
In June 1995 Tommy paid $605,000 for a property in San Juan Capistrano, California. A real estate listing would later describe the home as looking like "a 12-year-old with a huge bank account went wild." It included, among other things, statues of Merlin and Indiana Jones. He listed the home for sale in February 2024 for just under $3 million. He gave a tour of the home in 2010. Here is the tour from that point:
