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. The films he has produced and directed, which include Armageddon (1998), Pearl Harbor (2001) and the Transformers film series (2007–present), have grossed over 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. 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). Despite his commercial success at the box office, Bay's work is generally held in low esteem by film critics. 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 CPA. 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.