Michael A. Rich (born 1959) is an American

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

best known for his writing on sports-related films.

Early life

Rich was born in

Enterprise, Oregon Enterprise is a city in Wallowa County, Oregon. Enterprise serves as Wallowa County's county seat. The population was 1,940 in the 2010 census.

. He attended

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate degree programs and a variety of graduate and doctor ...

and was a member of

Sigma Phi Epsilon Sigma Phi Epsilon (), commonly known as SigEp, is a social college Fraternities and sororities, fraternity for male college students in the United States. It was founded on November 1, 1901, at Richmond College, which is now the University of ...

fraternity. While in college at Oregon State University he worked as a

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music fes ...

and

newsman A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

at the radio stations

KFLY KFLY (101.5 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Corvallis, Oregon, that serves the Willamette Valley of west-central Oregon. It airs a country music format and is owned by Bicoastal Media. It carries the nationally syndicated ''Bo ...

and

KEJO KEJO (1240 AM, "1240 Joe Radio") is a commercial radio station licensed to Corvallis, Oregon, airing a sports radio format. It is owned by Bicoastal Media with the broadcast license held by Bicoastal Media Licenses V, LLC. The studios are on ...

Corvallis, Oregon Corvallis ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Benton County, Oregon, Benton County in central western Oregon, United States. It is the principal city of the Corvallis, Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Benton Co ...

. At that time, KFLY was on the

AM broadcasting AM broadcasting is radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation (AM) transmissions. It was the first method developed for making audio radio transmissions, and is still used worldwide, primarily for medium wave (also known as "AM band") transm ...

frequency of 1240 kHz, and KEJO was on the

FM broadcasting FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting that uses frequency modulation (FM) of the radio broadcast carrier wave. Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, wide-band FM is used worldwide to transmit high fidelity, high-f ...

frequency of 101.5 MHz; both stations were licensed to serve Corvallis, were located in the same building, and owned by Madgekal Broadcasting, Inc., which was controlled by Corvallis businessman

Mario Pastega Mario Pastega (1916–2012) was an American businessman. A soft-drink bottler in the state of Oregon for nearly six decades, Pastega was elected to the Beverage World Hall of Fame in 2002. Pastega is best remembered as a patron of education and as ...

. A graduate of

's College of Business, Rich began his media career as a news reporter for

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

radio station

KINK KINK (101.9 FM also known as kink.fm) is a commercial radio station in Portland, Oregon. It is owned by Alpha Media and it airs an adult album alternative radio format. KINK's studios and offices are on Southwest 5th Avenue in the PacWest C ...

. He transitioned in 2001 from full time at KINK to morning updates while pursuing a screenwriter career. In 1998, he was awarded a

Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting The Don and Gee Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting is a fellowship program founded in 1986 to aid screenwriters. It is administered by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. History Gee Nicholl, widow of producer Don Nicholl, worked w ...

by the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., with the stated goal of adva ...

for his first film script ''

Finding Forrester ''Finding Forrester'' is a 2000 American drama film directed by Gus Van Sant and written by Mike Rich. In the film, a black teenager, Jamal Wallace (Rob Brown (actor), Rob Brown), is invited to attend a prestigious private high school. By chanc ...

''. This film was named after his high school English teacher, Mrs. Forster, from Enterprise High School in

Enterprise, Oregon Enterprise is a city in Wallowa County, Oregon. Enterprise serves as Wallowa County's county seat. The population was 1,940 in the 2010 census.

. He was awarded an honorary dFA by OSU on June 17, 2007, for his acclaim earned by his first two movies.

Filmography

* ''

'' (2000) * '' The Rookie'' (2002) * ''

Radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

'' (2003) * ''

Miracle A miracle is an event that is inexplicable by natural or scientific lawsOne dictionary define"Miracle"as: "A surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divi ...

'' (uncredited) (2004) * ''

Invincible Invincible may refer to: Film and television * ''Invincible'' (2001 theatrical film), a drama by Werner Herzog about Jewish cabaret during the rise of Nazism * ''Invincible'' (2001 TV film), a fantasy/martial arts TV movie starring Billy Za ...

'' (uncredited) (2006) * ''

The Nativity Story ''The Nativity Story'' is a 2006 American biblical drama film based on the nativity of Jesus and directed by Catherine Hardwicke. The film stars Keisha Castle-Hughes, Oscar Isaac, Hiam Abbass, Shaun Toub, Alexander Siddig, Ciarán Hinds, a ...

'' (2006) * ''

Secretariat Secretariat may refer to: * Secretariat (administrative office) * Secretariat (horse) Secretariat (March 30, 1970 – October 4, 1989), also known as Big Red, was a champion American thoroughbred horse racing, racehorse who was the ninth winn ...

'' (2010) * ''

Cars 3 ''Cars 3'' is a 2017 American animated sports comedy-adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is a sequel to '' Cars 2'' (2011) and the third film in the ''Cars'' franchise. It was directed by Brian Fe ...

'' (2017)

References

External links

*
Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting
1959 births American male screenwriters Living people Oregon State University alumni People from Enterprise, Oregon Screenwriters from Oregon {{US-screen-writer-1950s-stub