Michael was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. His childhood passion for the performing arts steered him toward a career in acting. Michael trained with Anna Deavere Smith at San Francisco's prestigious American Conservatory Theatre; he was cast in both regional and national commercials, and featured part in an episode of "Midnight Caller", starring Gary Cole. Michael's big break came when he was cast as the lead in the pilot episode of "Story Behind the Story", a Cosgrove/Meurer Production.

Michael moved to Los Angeles in 1991. His contacts landed him a position a Production Assistant position on the hit television series "Unsolved Mysteries", starring Robert Stack. Realizing his talents were best suited behind the camera, Michael moved up quickly within the company, working as Location Manager, 2nd AD, Production Coordinator, and eventually as the Host Producer.

After 6 years on "Unsolved Mysteries", 1997, Michael worked on a Ridley Scott project for Warner Brothers before moving over to Production Partners Inc., a company with a niche for producing HBO Comedy specials. In 1998, Michael worked in television on the PAX network series, "It's a Miracle, starring Richard Thomas. He also continued his involvement with independent filmmaking, working on projects like "Behind the Mask", "Spiral", "Bigger than the Sky", "Follow the Prophet".

In 2001 Michael expanded his involvement as an indie filmmaker. He created Silver Heart Productions to develop and produce feature films. Silver Heart's debut production, "Only for You", was written and directed by Donna Persico and was selected for distribution and released in 2008. Other Silver Heart productions include the festival nominated shorts, "White Flag", "Echo" and "Fantasy Unlimited" which won four awards including Best Film for the (2005) 48hour Film Project - Portland.

Michael has recently joined the Producers Guild of America and is an active member with the Directors Guild of America in the UPM category.