Michael Bay

Born: 17th February 1965
Where: Los Angeles, California, USA

The film school reject has scored box office successes with trademark action blockbusters such as Armageddon and The Rock.

At 15, the aspiring film-maker worked for Lucasfilm, brushing up his skills on the storyboard for Raiders of the Lost Ark.

After graduating from Wesleyan University, where he studied under the film historian Jeanine Basinger, he spent his twenties working on adverts and music videos.

(he was rejected from the University of Southern California Film School).

Clients included Tina Turner, Meatloaf, Lionel Richie and Donny Osmond (he won a number of MTV award nominations) and he also filmed ads for Nike, Reebok, Coca-Cola and Budweiser.

In 1994, he received the Directors Guild of America Award for commercial work, further raising his profile.

He was then approached by producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, who were impressed by his work on the music video for their Days Of Thunder.

In 1995, aged 30, Bay entered feature films with Bad Boys, a cop story starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, which grossed more than £100m worldwide.

Finding his style was perectly suited to that of producer Bruckheimer, Bay went on to direct several more projects for the action maestro.

His immediate follow-up, The Rock, starring Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery, did excellent business, doubling the takings of his debut effort.

But even that was blown out of the water by the success of his third effort Armageddon, which took in more than $550m, making Bay the youngest director ever to earn over a billion dollars in takings.

His successes earnt him the chance to go on to direct the epic Pearl Harbor, which has earnt $450m to date and has become one of the top selling DVD's of all time.

In 2003, Bay joined up once again with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence for the sequel to 1995's Bad Boys.

Recent work includes the sci-fi thriller The Island, starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson.