Chris Douridas

Throughout most of the ’90s, Chris held the music director position at KCRW-FM in Santa Monica, one of the most respected and progressive radio stations in the country. As host of KCRW’s popular daily new music program Morning Becomes Eclectic (1990-1998), Douridas was the first to play demos from then-unsigned artists Beck, Gillian Welch, and eels among many others.

While Chris was still in his KCRW role, Geffen Records enlisted him to identify and recruit new artists as an A&R consultant, bringing to the label the bands Remy Zero and That Dog. Two years later, he became an A&R executive at DreamWorks Records where he brought in the eels and Propellerheads, among other acts. While at DreamWorks and KCRW, he hosted the debut season of Sessions at West 54th, a weekly PBS music performance and interview program, which bowed in the summer of 1997, and is still in syndication. The show featured 48 acts including Fiona Apple, Patti Smith, Sinead O’Connor, Beck, and the television debuts of Belle and Sebastian and Ani Difranco, among others.

Chris is also a former VP at AOL Music where he oversaw Radio@AOL, and created, produced and hosted the popular Sessions@AOL interview and performance program (AOL Keyword: Sessions). For Sessions, Chris hosted and produced interviews with Paul McCartney, U2, Madonna, Moby, Radiohead, Peter Gabriel, John Mayer, Nelly and Avril Lavigne, among hundreds of others.

Recently, Chris served as creative programming consultant for Steve Jobs and Apple’s iTunes Music Store, Douridas created the critically-acclaimed live performance and interview series, iTunes Originals, featuring Jack Johnson, Sting, Sarah McLachlan, Bjork, PJ Harvey, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson and others. Additionally, Douridas launched the iTunes Essentials, an ongoing series of downloadable music playlists for the iPod culture.

But Douridas is probably best known in film circles as a music supervisor and consultant for major motion pictures and television series, having put together music for Northern Exposure, the Austin Powers series, 187, As Good as It Gets, Heat, Grosse Point Blank, Grace of My Heart, American Beauty (Grammy nominee for Best Soundtrack), One Hour Photo, Down With Love, The Girl Next Door, Rumor Has It, Bobby, the record-setting Shrek 2 (Grammy nominee for Best Soundtrack), and most recently The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

Other recent film music projects include the doc sensation American Teen, The Women, The Education of Charlie Banks, Morning, and the upcoming Shrek Forever After, and The Details.

Douridas has begun writing, directing and producing films as well, having completed two short films: The Present, and The Wondering Kind, the latter premiering at the 168 Film Festival.

He continues his dedication to presenting the best music on the planet and discovering and nurturing new artists through KCRW’s all music channel Eclectic24, which he conceived and curates, and his own weekly global radio program heard on KCRW-FM, kcrw.com, and Radio@iTunes.