Raised in Brooklyn NY, Michael Spiller followed a lifelong love of movies and television to SUNY Purchase where he received a BFA in film. Working his way up the on-set crew ladder in NYC after graduation eventually led to a successful career as a cinematographer. Spiller shot theatrical features, episodic TV, documentaries, commercials, and music videos all over the globe. After serving as DP on the first season of HBO’s Sex and The City, Spiller launched his directing career in season two, and went on to direct seven episodes of the series before moving to LA in 2001 and hanging up his light meters to focus on directing full time.
Spiller continued to direct some of the most successful comedies on TV. His directing credits include more than 20 episodes each of Modern Family and Scrubs, as well as multiple episodes of Superstore, Black-ish, Mixed-ish, The New Girl, The Middle, Cougar Town, Bernie Mac, Don’t trust the B in Apt 23 and Better Off Ted. His hour-long work includes Whiskey Cavalier, AJ and the Queen, Good Girls, Big Love, and five episodes of Ugly Betty. Spiller was the pilot and producing director for the ABC series Jake in Progress and Big Day and directed the pilot and executive produced Champions with Mindy Kaling and Charlie Grandy. He was the executive producer/director on The Mindy Project for all six seasons and directed 30 of the 116 episodes of the series. Spiller most recently finished executive producing/directing the first season of Mighty Ducks: Game Changers for Disney+, one of the first shows back shooting in Vancouver after Covid shut the industry down in March of 2020.
In 2011, for his direction on the series Modern Family, Michael Spiller won both an Emmy and a DGA Award for the “Halloween” episode and was nominated for a DGA Award again in 2012 for the “Express Christmas” episode of the same series. Spiller sits on the DGA Creative Rights Committee, Consults on NBC Female Forward and Emerging Director program and is on the Board of Governors for the Television Academy representing the Directors Peer Group. He is also one of the founding members and principal instructors of the DGA First Time Episodic Directors classes and has been an advisor on the DGA Producer/Director workshop.
A bit of a tech junkie, Spiller has been a beta tester for Scriptation since the early days of the app and has sat on the board of the company for over six years.