Michael McGreevey
BIO
Michael McGreevey began his professional career at the age of seven, appearing in "The Girl
Most Likely" with Jane Powell, the first of eighteen motion pictures he would act in over the
next twenty years. A successful child actor, Michael also appeared in over one hundred
television shows, including stints as a series regular on "Riverboat" (Burt Reynolds' first show),
and Guest Star appearances on acclaimed series like "Naked City", "Route 66", and three
two-part Specials for Walt Disney's "Wonderful World of Color." At eighteen, Michael enrolled
in classes at UCLA while still continuing his professional acting career, starring opposite Kirk
Douglas, Robert Mitchum, and Sally Fields (her first movie) in "The Way West", with David
Niven in "The Impossible Years", and alongside Richard Widmark and Lena Horne in "Death of
a Gunfighter", as well as Guest Starring in numerous television shows ("Mod Squad", "Love,
American Style") and Made for T.V. movies (including "If Tomorrow Comes" with Patty Duke).
Graduating from UCLA Film School with Honors, Michael continued to work as an actor, but set
his sights on one day moving behind the camera and trying his hand at writing, directing, and
producing. While starring opposite Kurt Russell in a series of very successful movies for
Disney ("The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes", "Now You See Him, Now You Don't", "Snowball
Express", and "The Strongest Man in the World") and making guest-star appearances on acclaimed television series like "The Waltons," Michael began writing. He was lucky enough to get his first professional writing assignment collaborating with his father, John McGreevey (Emmy Award; WGA Laurel Award) developing a three-hour movie for television about the Kennedy assassination entitled "Ruby and Oswald." Michael continued writing on his own, branching out into series television, working on such shows as "The Waltons" with Creator Earl Hamner, Jr., "Palmerstown" with Alex Haley and Norman Lear, "Quincy, M.E.", and many others. What started out as a freelance assignment writing a single episode of "Fame", the NBC series based on the popular film, turned into three seasons (72 episodes) as writer, Story Editor, and eventually Producer. Having written more episodes than anybody else, Michael was the obvious choice to write the last "Fame" show, effectively closing the door on the School of the Arts and bringing the award-winning series to an end. After "Fame", Michael decided he needed a break from the grind of series television, and so he returned to writing long form television, developing movies and mini-series for all the networks, including NBC's highly rated movie, "Bonanza: The Return." Returning to series television as the Supervising Producer on the syndicated show, "Tarzan: The Epic Adventures," Michael realized another life-long dream by directing one of the episodes. Bitten by the directing bug, Michael immediately took on another assignment, helming three episodes of the Fox Network's children series, "Mowgli: The New Adventures of the Jungle Book." The producers (Alliance, Kushner-Locke) were so pleased with his work on
this demanding action/adventure series that they asked him to direct an independent
feature based on the Kipling books, "Mowgli's First Adventure: In Search of the
Elephant Eye Diamond." Immediately after completing the film, McGreevey returned
to television, Executive Producing (as well as writing and directing) twenty-six
one-hour episodes of the syndicated series, "Born Free" (a continuation of the very
popular movie based on Joy Adamson's extraordinary work with the lioness, Elsa,
in Africa). Always looking for new challenges, Michael then formed his own
company and produced three documentary feature films, "Aging Without Symptoms,"
"Welcome to Eden," and "The Face of America." Recently, Michael decided he wanted
to return to his first love, acting, and immediately got work, Guest Starring in an
episode of "Parks and Recreation" and appearing in the feature film, "A Lesson of
Love." Having already worked for more than fifty years in the entertainment business,
Michael's looking forward to the next fifty.
