Michael Merino is an award winning Director, Producer and Writer. Merino grew up in Washington, D.C. the son of a 5th generation Irish/German mother and Spanish-Basque father (who played soccer in the Mexican league as a young man) before migrating to the United States. Having grown up in such a diverse home, Michael is fluent in Spanish and has a wide appreciation and understanding of the world beyond the confines of the Americas. After college, Michael traveled the globe for nearly six years, living and working abroad. His adventures included the running of the bulls in Spain, and being caught and detained during a coup in Fiji. Mr. Merino held many jobs which included jobs as a contractor, bartender, waiter, short order cook, ladies shoe salesmen, door to door sales and jewelry rep, a landscaper, art dealer, carpenter, brickmason, house painter, truck driver, dock worker, and his most interesting jobs as a pornographic pizza-maker in Sydney's "red-light" district. In addition to his University studies, Michael also attended Rockport's International Film School, The Corcoran School of Art, and is a member of The New York State Bar Association. Michael directed his first feature, the award-winning (Two Rivers Film Fest) action film "The Deal." in 2003. In 2006, Michael released the horror film "The Milkman" to critical acclaim. In 2008 he released the thriller/horror feature "502" which won the coveted "Shakes" award in the Dead-time film festival. And in 2012, Michael was awarded Best Director for the feature film "The Haunting of Pearson Place" (over 30 nominations worldwide with 20+ wins) at the WMIFF and HORRORFIND film festivals, as well as the Best Writer award for The Haunting of Pearson Place at the 2013 Scare-A-Con film festival in Syracuse, NY and Best Director and Screenplay for the short films; Times Up and Dream on at the WMIFF 2013. Michael resides in Los Angeles.