BIO: ​ 

Raised in Hawaii, Michael moved to NYC to study with legendary acting teacher and coach, Uta Hagen which gave him a foundation for creating stories as an actor, writer, director and composer. His feature film, Tiger Lily Road, a dark comedy thriller starring Emmy winner Tom Pelphrey (Ozark, Task) played U.S. and international film festivals and won the Audience Award at Woods Hole. It was the opening night film at Orlando FF and subsequently ran at NYC's Quad Cinema. He wrote and directed 3 Minutes, a film about a mass shooting which premiered at Soho International Film Festival and the short, Underground with Victor Slezak which was distributed by MiniMovieChannel. He is also the writer/composer of A Wild Thing, a '60s rock musical which was partly developed at The Mercer Writers Colony at Goodspeed Musicals and was a finalist for a 2023 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellowship. He has been an onstage instrumentalist at Goodman, Long Wharf, Huntington & Great Lakes Theatres among others. He was lucky enough to spend ten summers at New River Dramatists, a writer’s retreat in the Blue Ridge Mountains. 

       As an actor he has appeared in studio films and award winning indies, including X-Men First Class, RoboCop 2, Synecdoche New York, and Margot At The Wedding. On television, he starred in the Custer mini-series Son of the Morning Star, recurred on Manifest and guest-starred on numerous TV series, including seven episodes of Law & Order. On stage, he won critical acclaim in Goodman Theatre's Camino Real and has sung the title roles in Sweeney Todd and Man of La Mancha. He has also appeared at City Center Encores, The Public Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Long Wharf, Huntington, Kennedy Center and many others. He lives in rural New England and likes cats and dogs equally.