A graduate of Wesleyan University, Bay spent his twenties working on advertisements and music videos. His first projects after film school were in the music video business. He created music videos for Tina Turner, Meat Loaf, 'Richie, Lionel' , Wilson Phillips, Donny Osmond and the DiVinyls. His work has won him recognition and a number of MTV award nominations. He also filmed advertisements for Nike, Reebok, Coca Cola, Budweiser and Miller Lite. He won the Grand Prix Clio for Commercial of the Year for his Got Milk/Aaron Burr commercial. At Cannes, he has won the Gold Lion for The Best Beer campaign for Miller Lite, as well as the Silver for Got Milk. In 1995, Bay was honored by the Directors Guild of America as Commercial Director of the Year. In 1995, he also entered into feature films when his first movie Bad Boys, starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, grossed more than $160 million worldwide. His follow-up film, The Rock, starring Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage, was also hugely successful making Bay the director du jour.


Pearl Harbor (2001): $25,000,000 (Director's Gross Earnings)
Bad Boys (1995): $100,000 (directing fee)

Dated Playboy centerfold Jaime Bergman (45th Anniversary Playmate). Owns mastiff hounds named Mason after The Rock (1996)), Grace after Armageddon (1998/I), and Bonecrusher after Transformers (2007). Shot over 1 million feet of film for Pearl Harbor (2001). Used only about 20,000 feet for the final, 9-reel cut. Member of Propaganda Films. All his films up to and including Armageddon (1998/I) made him the youngest director to reach the billion dollar mark world wide. Filmed the movie Armageddon (1998/I) with an eye towards Middle America. Has a love for Americana. He is a very close friend of writer/director George Lucas from whom he often seeks advice. As a teenager, he worked at ILM in the storyboard department for films like Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Ranked #47 on Premiere's 2005 Power 50 List. Had ranked #54 in 2004. President of The Institute for the Development of Enhanced Perceptual Awareness, a commercial and music video production company. Two of his films, Armageddon (1998/I) and The Rock (1996), are in the Criterion Collection. Was offered the chance to direct Red Dragon (2002) but turned it down. Job went to Brett Ratner. Turned down the offer to direct Van Helsing (2004) , opting to do The Island (2005) instead. Was offer the opportunity to direct Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) but pulled out of the project due to scheduling conflicts. Was considered to direct Superman Returns (2006). Was challenged by German filmmaker Uwe Boll to a charity boxing match in 2008.