Michael Pressman

Producer and director Michael Pressman graduated from the California Institute of Arts where he studied filmmaking. His professional career got off to a start in 1976 when he directed the low-budget B-movie comedy "The Great Texas Dynamite Chase," about two sexy women on a bank-robbing spree. The next year, he worked on the comedy sequel "The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training." From there he worked in television for the first time, directing the made-for-TV drama "Like Mom, Like Me," which starred Linda Lavin and Kristy McNichol as mother and daughter. 1980 marked his first foray into producing, when he did double duty, producing and directing the romantic comedy "Those Lips, Those Eyes." In 1983, he directed Dan Aykroyd, as a college professor turned pimp, in the comedy "Doctor Detroit." From there, he worked on a string of TV movies, including "The Impostor" in 1984, "The Revenge of Al Capone" in 1989, and "Joshua's Heart" the year after. In 1991, he returned to the big screen and scored a major financial hit with the action-comedy sequel "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze" and the next year, he worked in episodic television for the first time, directing the David E. Kelley created series "Picket Fences." He was also the producer behind the award-winning, quirky drama for its four-season run, until 1996. Since then he has stuck to directing television, working on dramatic series such as "Law & Order," "Boston Legal," and "Grey's Anatomy."