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Rachel Mary Berkeley Portman, OBE (born 11 December 1960) is a British composer, best known for her film work. She was the first female composer to win an Academy Award in the category of Best Original Score (for Emma in 1996). (Previously, female songwriters Barbra Streisand, in 1977, Buffy Sainte-Marie, in 1983, and Carly Simon, in 1989, each won Oscars, but in the category of Best Original Song). Portman was born on 11 December 1960 in Haslemere, England, the daughter of Penelope (née Mowat) and Berkeley Charles Portman. She was educated at Charterhouse School and Worcester College,... MORE

Rachel Mary Berkeley Portman, OBE (born 11 December 1960) is a British composer, best known for her film work. She was the first female composer to win an Academy Award in the category of Best Original Score (for Emma in 1996). (Previously, female songwriters Barbra Streisand, in 1977, Buffy Sainte-Marie, in 1983, and Carly Simon, in 1989, each won Oscars, but in the category of Best Original Song). Portman was born on 11 December 1960 in Haslemere, England, the daughter of Penelope (née Mowat) and Berkeley Charles Portman. She was educated at Charterhouse School and Worcester College, Oxford. Portman was nominated for an Academy Award for her scores for The Cider House Rules in 1999 and Chocolat in 2000. She has also composed the scores for dozens of other feature films, as well as an unused score for the film Dangerous Beauty (George Fenton replaced her, but some of her material still remains in the film). For television, she composed the score for all thirteen episodes of Jim Henson's The Storyteller, and two episodes of The Jim Henson Hour ("Monster Maker" and "Living with Dinosaurs"). Her other works include a children's opera, The Little Prince (which was later adapted for LESS