Michael has directed numerous west coast and world premieres in New York and Los Angeles winning over 50 awards.

Over the years in Los Angeles people still talk about Michael’s production of WAITING FOR GODOT from 2012 at the Mark Taper Forum. It was honored with five Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards including outstanding production and direction, was nominated for 10 Ovation Awards (winning five), including best production. It was cited as one of the ten most memorable productions of 2012 seen in either New York or LA by Los Angeles Times critic Charles McNulty, who called it a “luminous revival.” Other productions at the Mark Taper – Music Center include Samuel Beckett’s KRAPPS LAST TAPE, Edward Albee’s THE SANDBOX, Harold Pinter’s A SLIGHT ACHE, and workshops of new works at Taper Two. At the Kirk Douglas Theatre, STAGING THE UNSTAGEABLE (centennial of the Armenian Genocide).

His site-specific company, Theatre InSite, formed a partnership with CBS (Radford) Studios (a first for L.A. theater), to produce live TV pilots (THIRD ROCK FROM THE SUN picked up), and inventive large-scale productions… an updated ROMEO AND JULIET (which Baz Luhrmann used for his film version) where audiences followed scenes and car chases through the backlot’s suburban streets, and THE TROJAN WOMEN, starring Mariette Hartley and an amphibious Humvee from the Marine Corp, set during the Gulf War and staged in 400,000 gallons of water at the old Gilligan’s Island Lagoon site. Also, a musical about menopause IS IT JUST ME OR IS IT HOT IN HERE which MENOPAUSE THE MUSICAL was taken from.

In New York he co-directed with Gene Fiest at the Roudabout, OTHELLO starring Earle Hyman, Powers Booth and Nicholas Kepros.  FOUL SHOTS by Ray Barry and Joe Culp at Theatre For The New City and ZIMMER by Donald Margulies at the Jewish Rep, to name a few.

He directed DISGRACED at the San Diego Rep which received a San Diego Critics Award nomination for Best Production, and RED starring John Vickery… both shows were in the San Diego Stage Beat’s top 10 list. .”  He directed dance icon Leslie Caron in SIX DANCE LESSONS IN SIX WEEKS at the Laguna Playhouse; and GOD OF CARNAGE at La Mirada Performing Arts Center.

Other shows in LA include: 100 APRILS by Leslie Ayvazian (NINE ARMENIANS) at Rogue Machine about the Armenian genocide,  THE SUPPLIANT WOMEN (ΙΚΕΤΙΔΕΣ) with a new translation by George Theodoridis presented by The Getty Villa and Rogue Machine, THE DOUBLE V (victory in the 2^nd World War – victory for racial equality) by Carole Eglash-Kosoff at the Matrix Theatre,

the critically acclaimed production of KINGDOM OF EARTH by Tennessee Williams at the Odyssey Theatre, where Charles McNulty of the LA Times said, “it is a discovery of a hidden gem by TW”, DANNY AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA (14 critics choices), THE LARAMIE PROJECT-TEN YEARS LATER starring Barbara Bain for the Tectonic Project and Grand Performances in one of 150 presentations around the world, SOME KIND OF LOVE STORY by Arthur Miller produced by Martin Landau and Mark Rydell for the Actors Studio.

His film KING OF THE ANTS shot on 35mm is distributed by Vanguard Cinema and is available from Netflix.

Michael trained at The Academy Of Dramatic Art at Oakland University in Michigan and in London at the Webber-Douglas Academy Of Dramatic Arts (Central School of Speech and Drama) under a scholarship from the Gulbenkian Foudation.