Michael Bray trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, before working in theatre, television and film as an actor, including six years at the National Theatre, where he also wrote and directed his first two plays,
The Rhythm of Love and
The Back of the Bus Girls at the National Theatre Studio. He then moved into writing and directing for television and film. He wrote and directed
The Sea Change, which was chosen for the Sundance Film Festival, and starred Ray Winstone, Maryam d’Abo and Sean Chapman. After that, he joined Winchester Films and worked on numerous films including
The Killing Joke,
Black Powder (Ealing Films),
The Possession of Julie May (Gaumont) and
The Commitments 2, and his screenplay for
Maggie won the Producers Alliance Award in 2004. Most recently in 2018, Michael was Executive Producer on
Where the Skin Lies for Signwriter Films, which had successful distribution in America and has been screened at major film festivals worldwide, and is an executive producer and board member of Dog Star Films.
Michael is currently Course Leader of MA Screen, Acting and MA Screen, Directing, Writing, the film-making courses at Drama Centre, Central Saint Martins, part of the University of the Arts London. He also teaches screen acting at Guildhall School of Music & Drama. He was also Head of Film and Television for Arts Educational Schools London, and then Director of the School of Acting for nine years, creating and directing over three hundred films that were screened at BAFTA in London, New York and Los Angeles. He also created a range of new film courses at ArtsEd including the first BA in Film Acting in the UK, and an international screen-acting course at the Hong Kong Baptist University.
