Heitor Pereira

Heitor Pereira is a Brazilian guitarist, songwriter, and film composer. He scored the box office hit "Despicable Me 2," the blockbuster family films "The Smurfs" and "The Smurfs 2," and Nancy Meyers' "It's Complicated," starring Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin. His can be heard in "The Minions," the installment in the "Despicable Me" franchise.

Pereira composed original scores for a broad spectrum of feature films, from the Latin grooves of "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights" and the animated pluck of "Curious George," to the cheeky "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" and the romantic fantasy "A Little Bit of Heaven."

He also co-scored "Despicable Me," with Pharrell Williams, as well as the score for the drama "Riding in Cars with Boys," and contributed music for numerous popular films, including "Mission: Impossible II," "Black Hawk Down," "Shrek 2," "Spanglish," and "The Holiday."

He began his film scoring career in 1997, when he was commissioned to write a song for James Brooks' comedy "As Good as It Gets." In addition to Brooks, he has collaborated with Penny Marshall, Robert Towne and James Moll.

As a guitarist, he played in Brazil with some of the country's legendary jazz musicians, including Ivan Lins. Pereira also was the guitarist for the English soul band Simply Red throughout the early '90s.

Warner Bros.