Michael has been in the film industry for over 40 years, working on a variety of live action, animated and stage productions along the way. He first entered the world of animation at Disney in 1989 as a writer for the Feature Animation Department during The Little Mermaid, followed by production work on a number of animated features and shorts–Rover Dangerfield (with Rodney Dangerfield) for Warner Bros., as Visual Effects Supervisor on Stuart Little 2 for Sony Imageworks, as the Associate Producer on The Lion King 1 ½ for Disney, Bionicle 3: Web of Shadows for Lego/Miramax, Smallville Legends: Kara & The Chronicles of Krypton for Warner Bros. and as the Assistant Director on The Pagemaster for Twentieth Century Fox. His documentary—Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life—won an Oscar nomination and a Golden Satellite Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1997. He also co-directed the documentary short, A Place in the Circle, with Pixote Hunt. He has authored a number of books and lectured at numerous film festivals and universities across the country, while teaching as an adjunct instructor on film production, directing, production design and film history. As a producer/writer/director, he is also currently developing an animated short and a number of feature film projects.