Michael Moore Biography

The American filmmaker and political activist Michael Moore was born in 1954 in Michigan. As a child, young Michael watched many members of his family, including his father, work on assembly lines for major car manufacturers. The men in his family were champions for union rights, and his uncle was amount one of the founders of the local labor union for automobile workers. Their struggle for fair pay and equal rights left a permanent imprint on Moore, who would carry those messages throughout his life and career.

After graduating from high school, Moore briefly attended the University of Michigan, but left to begin his first career as a writer. Michael founded The Michigan Voice in the early 1980’s, and in 1986, he moved to California to serve as the editor for Mother Jones. The gig was short-lived, with Michael leaving the job after only a few months in a dispute over content. The incident turned out to be quite fortunate for Michael; it resulted in a wrongful termination suit which gave Moore the start-up money he needed for his first documentary film, Roger & Me. 

Roger & Me, which depicted the struggles of the Flint, Michigan community after the closing of its General Motors factories, was a critical success, earning Moore his first Emmy and paving the way for a career which would give audiences some of their most significant documentary films of the era. Moore’s ability to infuse satire into his documentaries became his calling-card, and an effective way to convey disturbing information about everything from gun control to the American health care system. Michael’s next notable achievement would be Bowling for Columbine (2002), but before that he would also release Pets or Meat: The Return to Flint (1992), Canadian Bacon (1995), and the Big One (1997.)

Bowling for Columbine became one of his most successful and controversial documentaries, and an iconic one for the era. In exploring the root causes of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, Moore gave America its first high-grossing mainstream documentary, and brought the film genre from fringe to forefront. Columbine earned Michael an Award from the Cannes Film Festival and the 2002 Academy Award for Documentary Feature.

Since that time, Michael Moore has released: Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), Sicko (2007), and Capitalism: A Love Story (2009.) He continues to be one of the nation’s most notable documentary filmmakers and social critics. In addition to his films, Michael Moore has also written a number of companion pieces to his films, including: Stupid White Men (2001), Dude, Where’s My Country? (2003), The Official Fahrenheit 9/11 Reader (2004), Mike’s Election Guide 2008 (2008), and Here Comes Trouble: Stories form My Life (2011.)