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American composer renowned for his iconic orchestral and choral scores for the Halo video game series. Born May 1, 1955, in Seattle. Earned a Bachelor's in Music Composition from the University of Southern California. Co-founded TotalAudio with Michael Salvatori, creating music for commercials and games. Became Audio Director and Composer at Bungie in 1999. Created the landmark scores for Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, and Halo: Reach. Left Bungie in 2014 after a legal dispute. Co-founded Highwire Games and composed the score for their debut title, Golem (2019).

• O'Donnell and his long-time collaborator Michael Salvatori were initially hired by Bungie to create music for the game Myth II: Soulblighter before their groundbreaking work on Halo.
• The famous Gregorian chant-like "Halo Theme" (Mjolnir Mix) became one of the most recognizable pieces of video game music ever composed.
• O'Donnell's departure from Bungie in 2014 was highly contentious, involving a lawsuit over unpaid royalties and stock options after Microsoft acquired Bungie's parent company. He was fired by Bungie executives shortly before the release of Destiny, a game he had heavily contributed to musically. He ultimately won the lawsuit against Bungie in 2015.
• Beyond games, O'Donnell composed music for numerous commercials and films, including work for National Geographic and the IMAX film Cosmic Voyage.
• He taught music composition at the College of Creative Studies in Detroit.