Mikhail Yurievich Segal, (Russian: Михаил Юрьевич Сегал; born 3 January 1974 in Oryol, USSR) is a Russian film director, writer.

Biography

Mikhail grew up in Oryol, Russia. Being a school child, he was attending a theatrical studio at the local House of Pioneers (a USSR name for Technical and Fine Arts Club for children), writing plays and staging performances. By that time he shot his first short-length works with 8- and 16- mm cameras.

After graduating from Director Faculty of Oryol Institute of Culture in 1994, Mikhail staged theatrical plays in Oryol and Bryansk, composed poems and songs and performed with his band "Music By Touch".

In 1995, he entered Director Department of Russian State Institute for Cinematography ("VGIK") in Moscow (V. Naumov's chair) but dropped studies after the first year and started shooting video clips. His first appreciable work had become "Hello, Night" for "Ser'ga". Later on, Mikhail worked both with "pop-" and "rock-" performers but gained reputation of an "anti-cheapstuff" clip maker as a result. Amongst his well-known works are those for "B2"("My Rock-n-Roll"), "Spleen" ("Romance", "Tell", "New People", "Plastic Life"), "Nogu Svelo!" ("Our young and funny voices", "From Alma-Aty"), "The Caste" ("Noise is Around", "Radio signals"), "Night Snipers" ("Catastrophically"). He also worked with "Masha and Bears", "Notional Hallucinations", and many others.

In 2007, the clip "Tell" for "Spleen" was appointed the winner of The Best Music Video nomination at the MTV Russian Music Awards ceremony.

From 2002 on, Mikhail also works in advertising. He has shot commercials for Audi, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, LG, Ariel, IKEA, Alpen Gold, Pepsi, Fervex, Baltica, White Bear, MTS, Kievstar, MTV, Mail.ru, and many other brands.

In 2006 at XXVIII Moscow International Film Festival, Mikhail presented his first full-length film "Franz+Polina" interpreting the narrative "Dumb" by Ales Adamovich. The history of love of a Belorussian girl from an occupied village and of an SS soldier "has crossed the world" and got recognition at many Russian and international festivals (in Germany, France, Poland, Canada, China, and other countries).

In 2010, "AST" publishing house is issuing Mikhail's first book of prose "Youth" containing a story of the same name and a collection of short novels.