Throughout his 35-year career, Michael has directed manny landmark moments in television (an amazing feat for a 30-year old!) His shows have attracted over 2.3 billion views in combined audiences across all broadcast, cable and streaming platforms.
After starting his career at ABC News and Sports in Washington D.C., Michael moved back to NYC. During an 11 year stint at VH1, he produced and directed countless music performances, talk format, VJ segments and documentaries. Standouts among those were the cutting edge, award winning musical shows “New Visions”, “Storytellers”, as well as the iconic variety special, “Divas”. His directorial resume at VH1 reads like a Who’s Who of musical giants: Miles Davis, Prince, David Bowie, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston … the list is long.
After his time at MTV Networks, Michael helmed numerous specials and series as a freelance director, including Soul Train, 25 live “Survivor” finales, 25 years of the Emmy-winning “A Home For The Holidays”, the memorable Priceline.com commercial series featuring William Shatner, The Bee Gees “One Night Only” HBO concert special, and Jimmy Kimmel Live. He also directed competition series including Rockstar and The Sing-off. His inventive use of cameras on MTV’s “America’s Best Dance Crew” redefined the way dance is presented on TV today.
With 39 seasons (and counting) of the worldwide sensation “Ridiculousness” as well as numerous comedy specials - including 5 featuring Jeff Dunham and the award winning “Gad Elmaleh: American Dream” on Netflix - he has also established himself as a premier director of comedy.
In addition to helming Ridiculousness, its spinoffs and the EMMY award yearly special “A Home for the Holidays”, Michael is developing many projects both in the scripted space and non-scripted world through his company Give and Go, Inc.
His content company FStreet Productions has released two podcasts in the last year: “Unsung”, a scripted comedy about an aging rocker whose health issues forces him to reconnect with his dysfunctional family, and the ground-breaking “The Occult Unveiled”, now over 50 episodes strong.
His first feature film, Prisoners of Time, weaves together the story of a father and daughter navigating the demise of Roe v. Wade, incorporating Norman Mailer and Marilyn Monroe along the way.
Michael likes to think of himself as the love child of punk rock and quantum mechanics. He is a proud member of the Directors Guild of America.