Michael Stein

Michael Stein wanted to be an actor since he was a child when he first saw Jackie Gleason in “Smokey and the Bandit”. So, when he was fifteen he enrolled into a drama class his first day of high school. The first assignment was to write a conflict between two characters. Being a product of the 1980s and a self proclaimed neurotic kid, he wrote a scenario about a husband trying to convince his wife to leave the country due to early warning signs of a nuclear war. Despite classmate’s tilted heads and dropped jaws, his drama teacher loved it. After Michael graduated high school he had no interest in going to college but he attended community college and took classes in three subjects that interested him, psychology, business and acting. During the same period Michael performed as a comedian in Los Angeles, appearing at the, Comedy Store, Laugh factory, L.A. Cabaret, and the Improv. In order to pay for his acting education, Michael started promoting nightclubs and became known as the leading nightclub promoter of the “young Hollywood scene” with his club called “Off The Wall”. At the same time Michael organized and produced movie premiere promotions working closely with Guber Peters Productions and Rob Friedman at the ripe old age of twenty one. He then started studying with venerable acting coach and Group Theater disciple, Eric Morris. Stein’s, first role came when he was cast by his friend Paul Thomas Anderson to play the lead role of Dirk Diggler in the original short film “The Dirk Diggler Story”, that later became the feature film “Boogie Nights” which Michael Appears in as well. Michael was inspired by Paul Thomas Anderson’s success as a film maker when Anderson landed his first film “Hard eight”. It motivated Michael to leave his promotion business and become a full time production assistant in order to learn how to become a film maker. Stein worked on commercials, music videos and films with directors such as, Zack Snyder, David Dobkin, Tony Kaye, Dave Ramser, and Spike Jonez and many others. After several years of production work, Michael decided to write, direct and produce a thirty minute dramatic short film, “Rituals and Resolutions”. The intense and intellectual film about infidelity and broken self promises won many festival awards, including the two largest short film festivals at the time, Int. Short Film Festival Oberhausen and The Palm Springs Int. Film Fest. The film was then acquired and distributed by HBO films. Due to the success of “Rit