Michael Bay is an American director and producer who is famous for bringing blockbusters such as Armageddon, Pearl Harbour and Transformers to the big screen.
He returns to cinemas this week with the release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, a sequel to the 2007 movie, which sees Shia Labeouf and Megan Fox return to the franchise.
Bay was born in Los Angeles and after being rejected by all the major film schools he went on to study film at the Art Centre College of Design in Pasadena.
After graduating it was the music video industry where a young Bay got his break working for the likes of Meat Loaf, Lionel Richie and Tina Turner.
Bay made his movie directorial debut back in 1995 with cop comedy Bad Boys, which starred Martin Lawrence and Will Smith, it was to be the beginning of a very long and successful partnership with producer Jerry Bruckheimer.
Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) is a happily married family man. Mike Lowrey (Smith) is a smooth-talking bachelor. Both are cops in the narcotics division of the Miami police department.
When $100 million dollars worth of seized heroin is stolen from their police station, the mismatched duo are forced to switch identities to placate the only witness (Tea Leoni) who can lead them to the drug lord responsible and save their jobs before the FBI closes them down.
While the movie received mixed reviews it was a box office success, grossing over $141 million worldwide. Michael Bay has arrived.
He followed this up with The Rock, which saw him work with Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage, and this too was a massive success taking over $335 at the global box office.
It seemed that Bay had the knack for producing big budget, exciting and popular movies and lightening struck a third time with Armageddon.
With a planet-killing asteroid on a collision course with Earth, it's up to a motley crew of scientists and oil drillers to save the earth.
With 18 days to impact, a team from NASA frantically tries to find a solution but ends up turning to an outside contractor. Harry Stamper (Willis) and his team of oilmen are called upon to save the planet as only they can
Bringing together a great cast of Bruce Willis, Liv Tyler, Ben Affleck and Billy Bob Thornton the film was a hit taking over $554 million, despite it's mixed reviews.
Into the early part of the new decade Bay's partnership with Bruckheimer continued but only with mixed success. First up was Pearl Harbour, which focused more on a love triangle than the actual attack by the Japanese. The movie was panned but there was yet another healthy gross for Bay.
However this luck was beginning to run out as both Bad Boys II and The Island were slated and under achieved at the box office.
However 2007 brought the filmmaker his highest grossing movie when he adapted Transformers, hard to believe all this is just based on a toy, for the big screen.
Released in the summer of 07 Transformers, which made a star of Shia LaBeouf, held it's own well against the likes of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and The Bourne Ultimatum to gross over $708 million, a sequel seemed inevitable.
And here it is in the form of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The battle for Earth has ended but the battle for the universe has just begun.
After returning to Cybertron, Starscream assumes command of the Decepticons, and has decided to return to Earth with force.
The Autobots believing that peace was possible finds out that Megatron's dead body has been stolen from the US Military by Skorpinox and revives him using his own spark.
Now Megatron is back seeking revenge and with Starscream and more Decepticon reinforcements on the way, the Autobots with reinforcements of their own, may have more to deal with then meets the eye.
Despite the movie only being released this week Paramount have already green lit a third movie and issued a released date for a third movie, however Bay's inclusion in the project is in doubt.
He will take a producers role for his next few projects as he is set to work on A Nightmare on Elm Street and Fiasco Heights.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is released today.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Transformers Michael Bay