Award-winning Writer-producer
Michael Ray Brown is equally at home in both television and the movies. The Bone Yard was featured on “The Best of Discovery” and launched The Prosecutors true-crime series. A Haunting in Georgia also spawned a series which ran for 11 seasons. eHero, a film about professional video gaming, took two jury prizes at WorldFest.
Michael began his career at the American Film Institute in its Independent Filmmakers Program. His featuretteThe Orchard Heritage was named best animated film at the Athens International Film Festival. A total filmmaker, Michael handled cinematography on the thriller Ace of Spades and edited the crime drama Ice Cream Charlie.
Answering an ad “Read Scripts for a Living,” Michael found himself at Breakdown Services, writing cast breakdowns for movies and television. Setting up shop as a story analyst, he landed dozens of high-profile clients, including Casablanca Filmworks, American Cinema, The Begelman/Fields Company, John Kemeny, The Paul Kohner – Michael Levy Agency, Capella Films, and NBC Entertainment.
A Career at the Studios
As story editor for Metromedia Producers Corporation, Michael cultivated relationships with agents, writers, and publishers. Working with a consortium of producers, he developed the miniseries Sara Dane, and was on the team behind the hit comedy series Small Wonder.
A story analyst with Local 700S, I.A.T.S.E., Michael served at Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, MGM/UA, and Walt Disney/Touchstone Pictures. He recommended and/or developed the scripts for Lethal Weapon, Doc Hollywood, The Last Emperor, The Prince of Tides, Under Siege, Free Willy, Apollo 13, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Contact, Red Corner, Braveheart, and more than 70 other films.
Since leaving MGM, Michael has been in demand as a consultant with his company Story Sense. An authority on story structure, he “doctored” the scripts for East of Sunset, 3 Girls & the Golden Cocoon, Anchor Baby, and many more feature films.
Nonfiction Television
When a former MGM colleague became the head writer for New Dominion Pictures, she invited Michael to try out for their flagship series The FBI Files. Two hours after he turned in his eight-page test, the phone started ringing.
Murder and mayhem became his bread and butter as he wrote seven movies for Discovery on the pursuit of serial killers. Then came Swamp Monsters on the pursuit of cryptids in Louisiana.
A member of the Television Academy, Michael guided the scripting and post-production for two seasons of the Emmy-winning series Adoption Stories. He crafted the first season of Mystery ER and story produced a special on cults for the series Killer Kids. Proficient on both Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro, he was assistant editor on the films Black Creek and At War With the Dinosaurs.
Michael studied acting at the McCadden Place Theatre in Hollywood. He studied directing under Paul Gray and Lilyan Chauvin. That training served him well on Forensic Files, when he directed reenactments under the pressures of limited time and budget. He indulged his passion for science on Ultimate 10 and earned his field producer’s stripes on the series Xploration Earth 2050.
Drawing on four decades of experience, Michael launched Hold My Beer Entertainment LLC. He lives in Tarzana, California, with his wife Malwina, their two teenage sons, a Siberian cat, and two Smooth Collies.
