Michael McGruther started his filmmaking career by writing the original screenplay for Tigerland, a critically acclaimed film directed by Joel Schumacher and co-written with Ross Klavan. The screenplay earned several nominations, including the Best First Screenplay award from the IFP/West and the PFS Award from the Political Film Society in 2001.
The film Tigerland is widely recognized as Colin Farrell's breakthrough role, earning him the Boston Society of Film Critics Best Actor Award and the London Critics Circle Film Award for British Newcomer of the Year.
After working on the set of Tigerland, McGruther founded Buffalonickel Films and collaborated with Jersey Films and Universal Studios on two feature films: Lightspeed, a science fiction adventure, and Sentenced To Nature, a coming-of-age drama based on a New York Times article by Charles Siebert.
Buffalonickel Films acquired the rights to several novels and short stories, including Extra Life, a drama about coming-of-age in the digital world, and Blood Son, based on a 1951 short story by Richard Matheson. Blood Son marked McGruther's directorial debut in 2006.
In addition to his work behind the camera, McGruther has appeared in front of the camera, starring in several commercials and movies in the early 1990s, including Clockers and In & Out. He also had a cameo appearance in Tigerland.
Michael McGruther currently resides in New Jersey and Los Angeles with his fiancée Michele Santos and their 10-year-old black lab, Billie.
