Michael Benjamin Bay (born February 17, 1965) is an American film director and producer. Bay is best known for making large-budget action films, such as Armageddon, The Rock, Pearl Harbor, Bad Boys, Bad Boys II, Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and producing remakes of horror movies such as Friday The 13th, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Bay was born in Los Angeles and raised there by his adoptive parents, Harriet, a bookstore owner/child psychiatrist, and Jim, a CPA. His cousin is Susan Bay, the wife of actor Leonard Nimoy. He attended the exclusive Crossroads School, in Santa Monica, California, where the "Hollywood Elite," including film stars, send their children. He donated his Bar Mitzvah money to an animal shelter. Later in his adult life, he graduated from Wesleyan University in 1987, where he was a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity. After being rejected by USC and other notable film schools, he opted to study film at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.

After graduating from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, Bay met an old friend from high school named Kirk Skinner who helped him break into the music video industry and worked on videos for artists such as Meat Loaf, Richard Marx, Donny Osmond, Lionel Richie, and Tina Turner, among others. He also began directing television commercials for many large companies, including Nike, Reebok, Budweiser, and Coca-Cola. His most successful advertising campaign creation was the series of "Got Milk?" commercials, which won him the Grand Prix Clio for Commercial of the Year and the Cannes Silver Lion.