Bicoastal production company Supply&Demand has added film director and producer Michael Bay to its roster for U.S. representation spanning commercials, branded content and music videos. Bay is perhaps best known for his big-budget and excitement-rich action features, yet the filmmaker also has an extensive pedigree in advertising and music videos. He was formerly repped for commercials by The Institute, a company he had launched with EP Scott Gardenhour.
A graduate of Wesleyan University and the Art Center College of Design, Bay traces his passion for action films back to a childhood incident involving firecrackers, a toy train, and the resulting fiery scene which he shot with his mother’s 8 millimeter camera. He started his career interning with George Lucas at the age of 15, filing the storyboards for Raiders of the Lost Ark, which went on to inspire his desire to become a director.
After finishing his post-graduate degree, Bay began working at Propaganda Films, directing commercials and music videos. Bay’s first national commercial campaign was for the American Red Cross and earned him his first Clio. He went on to direct Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco’s inaugural Got Milk? campaign for the California Milk Processors Board, which won a Grand Prix Clio for Commercial of the Year. He has helmed spots for global brands including Nike, Reebok, Coca-Cola, Budweiser, Mercedes-Benz, Victoria’s Secret, Lexus, and Miller Lite. At Cannes, he won the Gold Lion for The Best Beer Campaign for Miller Lite, as well as a Silver for Got Milk?. Bay won the DGA Award as best commercial director of 1994 on the strength of five entries: ”Got Milk?” ads “Aaron Burr,” “Baby and Cat” and “Vending Machines”; Miller Lite’s “Big Lawyer Roundup” for Leo Burnett, Chicago; and Nike’s “Deion Sanders” via Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Bay has also created music videos for such famed artists as Tina Turner, Meat Loaf, Lionel Richie, Wilson Phillips, and Donny Osmond.
Bay’s success in advertising and music videos gained the attention of producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, who selected him to direct his first feature-length film, Bad Boys, starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. The resulting box-office smash hit led to a strong partnership and friendship with Bruckheimer, who went on to produce Bay’s second feature, The Rock, starring Sean Connery, Nicholas Cage, and Ed Harris. Another huge financial success, Bay was officially established as a household name synonymous with high-octane adventure.
Additional top-grossing films he has produced and directed include the Oscar-nominated Armageddon, starring Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck, and Liv Tyler; Pearl Harbor, starring Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Kate Beckinsale, and Cuba Gooding, Jr.; Bad Boys II; The Island, starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson; Pain & Gain, starring Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie, Tony Shalhoub, and Ed Harris; 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, starring John Krasinski, James Badge Dale, Pablo Schreiber, Dominic Fumusa, Max Martini and David Denman; and the ongoing Transformers film series, produced by Steven Spielberg. Pearl Harbor garnered four Academy Award nominations, winning for Best Sound Editing.
Most recently, Bay stepped into the world of streaming by directing the Netflix/Skydance feature film 6 Underground, starting Ryan Reynolds, Mélanie Laurent, Corey Hawkins, Adria Arjona, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Ben Hardy, Lior Raz, Payman Maadi and Dave Franco. Bay is currently in postproduction on Songbird, featuring Demi Moore, Craig Robinson, Paul Walter Hauser, and Peter Stormare. Bay has produced The Purge and the Ouija franchises, and is currently working on The Forever Purge as producer. Songbird and The Forever Purge are set to release next year.
Tim Case, founder/EP at Supply&Demand, said of Bay, “I have been a big fan going back to Propaganda days when he rocked the industry with Got Milk’s “Aaron Burr” film. From there he became a dominant director in commercials, movies, music videos and television. Drama and humor always mixed perfectly. We reconnected through a dear friend, Scott Gardenhour, who I first met when he was a line producer and later as an VP/executive producer for Propaganda. I watched as he went on to produce countless commercials for a broad spectrum of directors and then, later, to start, with Michael, The Institute as well as produce feature films. Everyone at the company is excited to work on the first commercials at S&D with both Michael and Scott. They have been terrific and constructive to work with; we are already off to a great start.”
