Dr. Gareth Owen is a multiple Olivier & Tony Award-winning sound designer specialising in musical theatre in London's West End, on Broadway and internationally. Early life Dr. Gareth John Owen was born in Sheffield, United Kingdom, a son of two teachers, both of whom specialised in special needs education. At the age of nine the family moved to the Cayman Islands where Owen attended Cayman Islands Middle School. Upon returning to the UK the family moved to St. Ives in Cornwall where Owen attended both Mounts Bay School and Penwith Sixth Form College before going to Plymouth University in Plymouth, to study for a bachelor's degree in underwater science. While at university he worked in nightclubs as a lighting and sound engineer, and as a boatman and beach lifeguard in St. Ives. Career Owen initially began working in live sound when the Penzance nightclub he was working at started to present live bands which Owen was asked to mix. From here he secured work with Birmingham's SSE Audio Group which lead to an early career in rock & roll, working at festivals such as Glastonbury, Reading, Party in the Park, and T4 on the Beach; and mixing acts such as Def Leppard, The Stereophonics, B B King, The Spice Girls and The Rolling Stones. Owens theatre career began when he was invited to mix the musical The Blues Brothers which was running at what is now the Trafalgar Studios in Londons west end. About this time, Owen is quoted as saying in an interview "I didn't have a lot of money so I bought a tent and lived in the band's garden". From here he was offered a job as sound designer for the UK tour of Stephen Schwartz' musical Godspell, beginning a collaboration which would continue until the present day. Owen went on to design a number of shows in a freelance capacity, before joining London's Orbital Sound as a full-time sound designer. In late 2009, Owen left Orbital Sound and formed his own company, Gareth Owen Sound. Since 2010, Owen has since worked with composers including Alan Menken, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Stephen Schwartz, Björn Ulvaeus, Glen Ballard, Max Martin, David Bryan, George Stiles, Cyndi Lauper, Alan Silvestri and Stephen Sondheim. Owen has also created musicals based on the music of pop icons such as Michael Jackson, Donna Summer, and The Beatles; and is a collaborator with top directors