Jay Michaels has been part of the independent theater and film movement since 1977. He was part of Lincoln Center’s tribute to Caffe Cino and the tail-end of the original off-off Broadway movement in 1985. He spent more than 40 years working on and off-Broadway; doing Shakespeare (beginning his career as an actor, portraying Rosencrantz in Raymond Gasper’s landmark production of Hamlet at the original Lion Theater on Theare Row); singing opera (premiering the role of Laurence in the operatic version of Moliere’s Tartuffe in NYC); directing new plays and films (notables include the controversial drama, Loyalties, at the original Perry Street theatre as part of Adrienne Shelly’s Missing Children Theatre Company; the final company of LINE – off-off Broadway’s longest running play; A Yorkshire Tragedy, a play attributed to William Shakespeare, at LaMama; and writing, directing and producing the musical CRITIC, which ran in NYC for over a year). He also served on staff of Broadway’s Guys & Dolls (1992); Damn Yankees (1994) The Vagina Monologues (2004) and Beginnings at Town Hall (2016) with national tours of Cats; Les Miserables; and Edwin Drood. He even serves as a professor of theatre, media culture, and communications (his textbook “99 Seats – producing independent theatre in NYC” – will be out in 2021).

All that time, he kept a secret. All he ever wanted to do was work in horror films!

Sometimes he came close. He played the dead but still moving Shrdlu in Susan Einhorn’s production of The Adding Machine; the devil-dealing Doctor Faustus off-Broadway in Christopher Marlowe’s renaissance classic; he created the title role of “the Vampire” in Off-Broadway’s The Monster Seated Next to Me by Steve Korbar; and even was turned into a bug in Suzanne Sitelman’s sci-fi fantasy film “Norman, a modern metamorphosis,” which premiered at Cannes.

Michaels has been called a horror historian due to his knowledge and journey exploring and notating horror films. He is currently writing a book entitled THE MONSTERS ARE US: The socio-political cautionary tales hidden in all horror movies.

He was host and co-producer of TERROR TV’s original program, TERROR TALK, interviewing notable members of the macabre media and producer/host of the TV program and podcast IN THE PASSIONPIT podcast discussing independent stage and film ... with a focus on the genre. 

He is a professor of media culture at two universities and owns a boutique communication and promotions firm in NYC.