Michael Benjamin Bay (born February 17, 1965) is an American filmmaker. He is known for directing big-budget action films characterized by fast edits, stylistic visuals and extreme use of special effects. His films, which include the science fiction disaster thriller Armageddon (1998), the epic war film Pearl Harbor (2001) and the science fiction action films in the Transformers film series (2007–present), have grossed over US$5 billion worldwide. He is co-founder of commercial production house The Institute, a.k.a. The Institute for the Development of Enhanced Perceptual Awareness. He is co-chair and part-owner of the digital effects house Digital Domain. He co-owns Platinum Dunes, a production house which has remade horror movies 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 considerable success at the international box office, Bay has received mixed to negative reviews for his work from film critics. While his films such as The Rock, The Island, Pain & Gain, and Transformers received mildly positive reviews by critics and audiences, his three sequels in the Transformers film series were panned by critics, as were Pearl Harbor, the Bad Boys films, and Armageddon.

Biography

Bay lives in Los Angeles and Miami with his two bullmastiffs, Bonecrusher and Grace, named for characters in Transformers and Armageddon, respectively. As a boy, he donated his Bar Mitzvah money to an animal shelter and often includes his bullmastiff dogs in his films. Bay previously had another dog, Mason, whose final appearance in a film was as Miles' dog in Transformers. Mason died during production of that film in March 2007.

Best films