Known to his fans as "Winterman", Michael first modeled in the late 1990’s after losing a bet. Thinking, that no one would want to draw a fat naked guy gave him pause, and dropping his robe and standing naked in front of a room full of strangers almost never happened. But when it did, the affirmation and appreciation of a room full of art students for his bending and twisting through a series of poses changed his perspective and his future. He thought “okay, the bet has been paid and I’ll never have to do this again”, but the teacher passed his name along to other teachers and other institutions, and within a year he was posing throughout southern California.

The biggest influence on his future was brought to him by industry artist Karl Gnass who hired Michael to be the reference model for the Mountain Troll character seen in the J. K. Rawlings’ film “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”. Seeing his tummy and shambling stance reflected in the Mountain Troll encouraged Michael to share unabashedly of himself for film, video, and television much more often. With his long hair and outfitted in a garish moo-moo, became the character of Joy Peters in the Cartoon Network’s show “Tom Goes To The Mayor” created by Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, and then a recurring character in their series.”Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job !”. To date, Michael has appeared in over 325 projects, including 20 feature films, 75 short films, 75 television appearances, 50 music videos, several commercials, and 10 webisodes. He enjoys working with independent filmmakers bringing their concepts to life, and continues to share of himself to inspire artists in classrooms and live art installations.
His motto: Life is too short to be bored or be boring.