Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II, Grey's Anatomy, Picket Fences Director, Michael Pressman

sage + blush wellness founder, Siri Baruc Thornton, interviews Award-winning director/producer, Michael Pressman. Michael has, by design, worked across most entertainment genres and mediums, including comedies, dramas, social commentaries, short films, feature length studio, indie films, series television, movies, Broadway stage productions, and regional theater.


His first feature film as a director was The Great Texas Dynamite Chase, then Bad News Bears in Breaking Training, the sequel to the immensely popular original starring Walter Matthau, the Dan Aykroyd comedy Doctor Detroit, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze. He followed that with Those Lips, Those Eyes, a love letter to the theater about the life of the actor in summer stock, with a lead star-making performance by Frank Langella. He was courted to direct a resurgent Richard Pryor in post Vietnam War drama, Some Kind of Hero, co-starring the then top box office grossing actress Margot Kidder.


Pressman gravitated to directing more than a dozen films for television in quick succession during that medium's heyday. His most successful television movie was To Heal a Nation, about the building of the Vietnam memorial starring Eric Roberts. He also directed the famed Anne Tyler novel Saint Maybe, starring Tom McCarthy, Blythe Danner and Mary-Louise Parker for Hallmark Hall of Fame. His notoriety as a top director of dramatic content earned him an offer from David Kelley to co-executive produce and direct the TV series, Picket Fences, which lasted four seasons and won him two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Drama Series. He next went on to launch Kelley's next show, Chicago Hope, which earned him another Emmy nomination for Outstanding Drama Series.


Since then, Pressman produced and directed numerous network series, including multiple episodes of the Emmy Award-winning series Law & Order SVU, and two seasons of the then new series Blue Bloods. Pressman also directed the final two hours of the Emmy-nominated TV mini-series Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders, starring Edie Falco and Heather Graham. Most recently, Pressman executive produced the fifth and sixth season of NBC's Chicago Med, earning that show its highest ratings to date. 


Pressman's stage work includes directing the LA premiere of To Gillian on her 37th Birthday, which he then directed as a feature film starring Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeifer, and Peter Gallagher and a LA production of Frankie and Johnny in the Claire De Lune, which he also later adapted into the independent film Frankie and Johnny are Married. He also directed the 2008 Broadway revival of Come Back, Little Sheba. Pressman won Best Director that year by the NAACP Artist Awards.


Pressman also directed the play Finks as well as a musical in LA called Come Get Maggie. He’s in the works on a personal and emotional book about directing and has a few more projects yet to come!

Check out Michael's personal website here:
https://www.michael-pressman.com/
Check out Michael's extensive credits here: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0696309/?...

Siri Baruc Thornton is a Reiki Master of Masters, Mountain Breathwork facilitator, Akashic Records Teacher, and founder of sage + blush wellness, a safe space to come home to the soul that you are. All services and membership can be found on www.sageandblushwellness.com


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