Raised in Bayville, New York on Long Island, Fiedel graduated from The Barlow School.
In the early 1970s, Fiedel was signed as a songwriter to Paul Simon's DeShufflin' Music.
[1] Fiedel began his career in film in the mid 1970s, and wrote extensively for television films including Playing for Time written by Arthur Miller, starring Vanessa Redgrave and Jane Alexander, and some independent cinema releases, until director James Cameron hired him to score the science fiction film The Terminator in 1984, setting the wheels in motion for a successful career.
[2] In the 1980s, he worked on several successful movies, predominantly in the action and thriller genres, and pioneered the use of electronic instruments and synthesizers in soundtracks.
[3] Since then, Fiedel has scored many popular and successful movies, including Fright Night (1985) and its sequel Fright Night Part 2 (1988), The Big Easy (1987), The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988), The Accused (1988), Blue Steel (1990), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Blink (1994), and True Lies (1994).