Michael Bay

Michael Benjamin Bay (born February 17, 1965) is an American film director and producer.

He is best known for making big-budget, high-concept action films characterized by fast cutting, stylistic cinematography and visuals, and extensive use of special effects, including frequent depictions of explosions.

It was nominated for four Oscars at the 71st Academy Awards, including Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing and Best Original Song.

He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1986, majoring in both English and film.

He was a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity and a favorite student of film historian Jeanine Basinger.

For his graduate work, he attended Art Center College of Design in Pasadena where he also studied film.

Bay began working at Propaganda Films, directing commercials and music videos, two weeks after finishing his postgraduate degree.

His 90-second World War II–inspired Coca-Cola advertisement was picked up by Capitol Records.

His first national commercial was for the Red Cross, which won a Clio Award in 1992.

He directed Goodby, Silverstein & Partners' "Aaron Burr" commercial as part of the "Got Milk?"

ad campaign for the California Milk Processors Board in 1993, which also won a Grand Prix Clio Award for Commercial of the Year.

Bay's success in music videos gained the attention of producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, who selected him to direct his first feature-length film, Bad Boys.

It was shot in Miami in 1994 and starred Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.

The action film was a breakout role for Smith, who was making a transition from television at the time.

Shooting in Miami was a good experience for Bay, who would later own a home in the city and spend a great deal of time there.

The film was completed for $19 million and grossed a remarkable $141 million in the summer of 1995.

Bay's success led to a strong partnership and friendship with Jerry Bruckheimer.

While The Rock (1996), Transformers (2007), 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016), and Ambulance (2022) received moderately positive reviews, most of his other films, particularly the four Transformers sequels, have been received negatively by critics.

Bay was born in Los Angeles.

He was raised by his adoptive parents Harriet, a bookstore owner and child psychiatrist, and Jim, a Certified Public Accountant.

He was raised Jewish.

His grandfather was from Russia.

His cousin, Susan Bay, is the widow of Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy (whom he eventually cast as the voice actor for Sentinel Prime in Transformers: Dark of the Moon).

He attended the exclusive Crossroads School in Santa Monica, California.

Bay often traces his interest in action films back to an incident during his childhood.

As a boy, he attached some firecrackers to a toy train and filmed the ensuing fiery disaster with his mother's 8 millimeter camera.

The fire department was called and he was grounded.

Bay got his start in the film industry interning with George Lucas when he was 15, filing the storyboards for Raiders of the Lost Ark, which he thought was going to be terrible.

His opinion changed after seeing it in the theater and he was so impressed by the experience that he decided to become a film director.

His follow-up film, The Rock (1996), an action movie set on Alcatraz Island and in the San Francisco Bay area, starred Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage and Ed Harris.

It was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, the latter of whom died five months before its release.

The film is dedicated to him.

Connery and Cage won 'Best On-Screen Duo' at the MTV Movie Awards in 1997, and the film was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Achievement in Sound category for the work of Greg P. Russell, Kevin O'Connell and Keith A. Wester.

After the success of The Rock, Bay established his production company Bay Films, with a two-picture deal with Disney.

The films he has produced and directed, which include Armageddon (1998), Pearl Harbor (2001) and the Transformers film series (2007–present), have grossed over US$7.8 billion worldwide, making him one of the most commercially successful directors in history.

He is co-founder of commercial production house The Institute, a.k.a. The Institute for the Development of Enhanced Perceptual Awareness.

In 1998, Bay again collaborated with Jerry Bruckheimer, this time as a co-producer, as well as directing the action-adventure film Armageddon.

The film, about a group of tough oil drillers who are sent by NASA to deflect an asteroid from a collision course with Earth, starred Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler.

He co-owns Platinum Dunes, a production house which has remade horror films, including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), The Amityville Horror (2005), The Hitcher (2007), Friday the 13th (2009) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010).

Bay's work is generally held in low esteem by film critics.