Michael Bay Biography

Michael Bay is an American movie producer and director famous for the explosion-filled excitement of movies such as The Rock (1996) and Transformers (2007). A Los Angeles native, Bay studied film at Wesleyan University (class of 1986) and then at Pasadena's Art Center College of Design (class of 1988). He quickly made a name for himself as a director of music videos and TV commercials (Bay made the first spot in the "Got Milk?" campaign). His first feature film as a director was 1995's Bad Boys, an action comedy starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. The movie was a box office smash, the first of a string of Michael Bay "high-octane" hits that includes Armageddon (1998, starring Bruce Willis), Bad Boys II (2003), Transformers and its sequels, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) and Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011). His 2001 blockbuster Pearl Harbor was loudly booed by the critics, as was 2005's The Island, but Bay was too busy piling up money to notice. As a producer, he's been behind a line of horror remakes that includes The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), The Amityville Horror (2005), Friday the 13th (2009) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010).