Michael Schultz

Known For

Directing

Born

Nov 10, 1938

Place of Birth

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

Credits

100 titles

Michael Schultz

Biography

Schultz was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Katherine Frances (née Leslie), a factory worker, and German American Leo Schultz, an insurance salesman. After his undergraduate work at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Marquette University, he attended Princeton University, where in 1966 he directed his first play, a production of Waiting for Godot. He joined the Negro Ensemble Company in 1968, which brought him to Broadway in 1969. His breakthrough was directing Lorraine Hansberry's To Be Young, Gifted and Black, which he restaged for television in 1972. Schultz' earliest film projects combined low comedy with profound social comment (Honeybaby, Honeybaby and Cooley High), reaching a peak with the ensemble comedy Car Wash (1976) and Which Way Is Up? (1977), starring Richard Pryor. In 1978, Schultz took the reins of the musical Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band with the largest budget ever entrusted to an African-American film director to that date. However, upon its release, the project was a commercial and critical failure. Schultz would go on to make prominent films such as Scavenger Hunt (1979), Carbon Copy (1981), and Disorderlies (1987). More recently, Schultz has worked in television, piloting episodes of such style-conscious series as The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and Picket Fences, as well as an abundance of made-for-TV movies. In 1991, Schultz was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.

Known For

Filmography

2025

SEGAL

Self

Movie
2023

Found

Director

Tv
2022

All American: Homecoming

Director

Tv
2021

The Wonder Years

Director

Tv
2019

I Am Richard Pryor

Self - Filmmaker

Movie
2018

All American

Director

Tv
2018

Black Lightning

Director

Tv
2016

No Tomorrow

Writer

Tv
2016

Dead of Summer

Director

Tv
2016

Recovery Road

Director

Tv
2015

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Director

Tv
2015

Return of the Dragon

Self

Movie
2014

black-ish

Director

Tv
2013

The Tomorrow People

Director

Tv
2013

Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic

Self

Movie
2012

Arrow

Director

Tv
2011

Once Upon a Time

Director

Tv
2011

Hart of Dixie

Director

Tv
2011

New Girl

Director

Tv
2011

Switched at Birth

Director

Tv
2009

Directors on Directing

Self

Movie
2009

Drop Dead Diva

Director

Tv
2008

Privileged

Director

Tv
2008

In Plain Sight

Director

Tv
2008

Eli Stone

Director

Tv
2007

Women's Murder Club

Director

Tv
2007

Dirty Sexy Money

Director

Tv
2007

Chuck

Director

Tv
2007

October Road

Director

Tv
2007

Lincoln Heights

Director

Tv
2006

Brothers and Sisters

Director

Tv
2006

Pepper Dennis

Director

Tv
2004

Woman Thou Art Loosed

Director

Movie
2004

Jack & Bobby

Director

Tv
2003

Cold Case

Director

Tv
2003

The O.C.

Director

Tv
2002

Everwood

Director

Tv
2002

L.A. Law: The Movie

Director

Movie
2001

Philly

Director

Tv
2001

The Education of Max Bickford

Director

Tv
2000

Boston Public

Director

Tv
2000

Gilmore Girls

Director

Tv
2000

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Winds of Change

Director

Movie
2000

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: My First Adventure

Director

Movie
2000

City of Angels

Director

Tv
1999

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Tales of Innocence

Director

Movie
1999

Wasteland

Director

Tv
1999

Family Law

Director

Tv
1999

My Last Love

Director

Movie
1998

Killers in the House

Director

Movie