Mike began his drawing studies in the early 1980's at Brandes Art Institute, located in Reseda, California. Several years later Mike began working in the animation industry, beginning with small studios including Morgan Interactive and Colossal Pictures in San Francisco, and Philips Interactive studios in Los Angeles.
His career in feature animation began at Walt Disney Feature Animation in 1994, where he worked on six feature films including Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Fantasia 2000, Tarzan, and Beauty and the Beast. During his time at Disney Feature Animation Mike continued his drawing studies in classes held at the studio with artists Glenn Vilppu, Steve Huston, and Walt Stanchfield, among many others.
After leaving Disney Feature Animation Mike's career took on an international character; he subsequently worked at Walt Disney Animation Australia on direct-to-video feature film productions, and in Valencia, Spain as a supervisor on the animated feature film El Cid: The Legend.
Mike's teaching career began while working at the Disney studio in Los Angeles. He taught assistant animation at the American Animation Institute, and at CalArts. In 2003 Mike began teaching life drawing to animation artists in Boulder, CO, and animal drawing at the Denver Zoo and San Diego Zoo.
In 2004 Mike became a faculty instructor at the Art Institutes of California. Classes taught have included principles of drawing, life drawing, animal drawing, principles of animation, sculpture for animation, character design, and portfolio production.
Since 2005 Mike has also been a guest lecturer in drawing at many Los Angeles museums, including The Getty Center Museum, The Getty Villa, The Huntington Library and Art Collections, and The Norton Simon Museum of Art. Mike resides in Florence, Italy.