Michael Lehmann

Born: 30 March 1957
Where: San Francisco, California

Michael began his Hollywood career working for Francis Ford Coppola at Zoetrope Studios, supervising video cameras on One From the Heart and The Outsiders.

He returned to film school at USC where he directed the acclaimed short film The Beaver Gets a Boner, and also provided a short, Ed's Secret Life, for Saturday Night Live.

The success of these shorts led to a production deal with New World Pictures and his first feature directing assignment, Heathers, starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater.

Meet the Applegates was Michael's second independent feature inspired by 1950s sci-fi B-movies.

Michael's first studio-backed feature was Hudson Hawk, based on a story by star Bruce Willis. After a three year absence working on TV, he returned to features with the comedy Airheads, then had his first producing credit on the biopic of quirky film director Ed Wood.

In a bid for commercial success, Michael directed the romantic comedy The Truth About Cats and Dogs starring Uma Thurman and Janeane Garofalo as two rivals who team up to win the affections of newcomer Ben Chaplin.

He then went on to direct My Giant starring Billy Crystal, followed by romantic comedy 40 Days and 40 Nights.