Michael is an Emmy award-winning and Ivor Novello nominated composer, producer and songwriter with many film, television and pop music credits to his name. His music scores include Richard Loncraine’s Finding Your Feet starring Timothy Spall and Imelda Staunton and Richard Linklater’s Me and Orson Welles starring Zac Efron and Clare Danes.
Recent credits include the hard-hitting environmental feature doc, Ending Real Fur, 4-part series hacker:HUNTER, and Rebecca Coley's 2023 surfing documentary, Point of Change (co-scored with Paul Oakenfold, Stephen Warbeck and Lewis Morison). In 2018 he scored the Peabody Award-winning BBC/PBS documentary, The Jazz Ambassadors. Other work in television includes ITV mini-series Dark Angel with Joanne Froggatt, the landmark series for NatGeo, Alien Deep, Einstein’s Big Idea (PBS/Nova) and Battle of the Hood and Bismarck.
Michael has also worked closely with director Luke Bradford on a number of short film projects that include Risk, White Gold, and TORN. A drama feature is in the works for 2025.
His musical background is a hybrid combination of styles and approaches, including traditional classical tuition (viola and piano), self directed learning by ear (guitar and bass), and mentoring/tutoring from influential and diverse music industry figures such as Ghanaian master drummer/percussionist Reebop Kwaku Baah, British music icons Steve Winwood and Jazzie B (Soul ll Soul), and classical/jazz/media composers Joseph Horowitz and Mike Gibbs.
In the music industry, he has worked as a producer, songwriter and musician with many iconic acts including Ian Dury, Soul II Soul, Steve Winwood/Traffic, Scritti Politti, Curiosity Killed the Cat, John Reid (Nightcrawlers), James Taylor Quartet, Mark Morrison, Sting, Bee Gees, Melissa Etheridge, Future Sound of London and many more. Michael has also co-scored a number of film and TV projects with DJ/Producer Paul Oakenfold including Point of Change, Citizen Bio, Nothing Like the Holidays and Japanese anime Vexille.
As a recording artist Michael has written and produced a number of solo jazz albums, and his composition for jazz trio, Mother Medusae, featuring violinist, Thomas Gould, was nominated for an Ivor Novello Composer Award. From time to time he also performs with his 10 piece big band, the Jazz Sapiens.
As an educator Michael enjoys mentoring up and coming talent, and is committed to passing on his experience to the next generation of music creatives.