- Michael Picarella's fascination with movies began when he got a super 8 camera on his 10th birthday. He shot everything from sights at Disneyland to commercials that advertised an amusement park called Fun Mountain that he and his brother imagined.
In his first year of high school, Picarella made animated cartoons using school equipment. He eventually convinced his parents to buy him a video camera of his own so he could make more cartoons outside of school.
In between cartoons, Picarella made live action skits on video. His audience grew after each piece and, eventually, making live action movies became more important than making animated cartoons.
In 1995, Picarella began his first semester at the Academy of Art in San Francisco with a goal to be a motion picture director. It was there that he met filmmaker Steven Napolitan.
In 1998, Picarella was making a short movie and asked Napolitan if he was interested in operating camera. That was the first serious collaboration between the two filmmakers. The next year, Picarella wrote and directed a short movie that Napolitan produced and edited. The collaboration was more successful than the first and it lead to the making of the feature-length movie "1 2 3." Picarella wrote and directed the movie and Napolitan produced and edited.
In 1999, Picarella graduated from the Academy of Art and moved to Southern California to work in the motion picture industry. Almost every weekend during that time, Picarella drove up to Northern California to work with Napolitan to finish "1 2 3."
Following the completion of "1 2 3," Picarella and Napolitan began work on a second feature-length movie called "Punchcard Player."
Picarella continues to work in the film industry, he writes a family humor column for various publications and he writes screenplays. He lives with his wife and son.- IMDb Mini Biography By: R. Trotta - In August of 2012, Picarella edited actress Diane Franklin's autobiography, "Diane Franklin: The Excellent Adventures of the Last American, French-Exchange Babe of the 80s."
In May of 2014, Picarella's own book, "Everything Ever After (Confessions of a Family Man)," a collection of stories from his award-winning family humor newspaper column, was published. Chris Erskine of the Los Angeles Times called it a "user's manual for dads."
In 2015, Picarella and his brother, Tom Picarella, founded Jack-o'-Lantern Press (JackoLanternPress.com), a humor website dedicated to monsters and Halloween.
In February of 2017, Picarella edited actress Diane Franklin's follow-up autobiography, "Diane Franklin: The Excellent Curls of the Last American, French-Exchange Babe of the 80s."
In May of 2019, Picarella, his brother and Picarella's son (15 years old at the time) founded Jack-o'-Lantern Press Publishing and published "Transylveinya Traveler: A Travel Guide for Monsters, Ghosts, Vampires, Aliens, Werewolves, Witches, Zombies, Demons ... And Mad Scientists, Too." Todd Durham, creator of "Hotel Transylveinya," called the book "monsterlicious."
In April of 2019, Picarella and his brother started "The Jack-o'-Lantern Press Podcast."- IMDb Mini Biography By: T. Ragona
- Worked as a journalist for various Southern California newspapers, and he has worked with Napolitan Productions and Nappic Communications in many capacities since 1998. He wrote and directed a viral ad campaign that was inducted into MarketingSherpa's Viral Hall of Fame. His commercial work includes writing a national spot for Cuts Fitness for Men. His corporate video experience includes writing for the Boys and Girls Club, SecuriMetrics and United Religions Initiative. As a reporter, he covered U.S. President George W. Bush, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, actor/director/producer Rob Reiner, comedian/actor Jamie Kennedy, actor Danny Glover, blues performer B.B. King and many more notable figures.
- In 2005, with moviemaking partner Steven Napolitan and film school friend Greg Donis, he began work on a project that was to result in the making of six to 10 movies during a five-year period. Unfortunately the project never got off the ground.
- Won the "best poem" award in a Ventura County county-wide poetry contest when he was in the second grade.
- Made an award-winning short documentary about NASA's space station.
- Imagined an entire amusement park called Fun Mountain consisting of rides, shops, restaurants and parking plans with his younger brother when the two were in elementary school.
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