Person
Michael Schultz
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
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 undergrad…
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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.
Filmography
Movies and shows, newest first
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2025
SEGAL
Movie Self
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2023
Found
TV show Director
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2022
All American: Homecoming
TV show Director
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2021
The Wonder Years
TV show Director
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2019
I Am Richard Pryor
Movie Self - Filmmaker
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2018
All American
TV show Director
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2018
Black Lightning
TV show Director
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2016
No Tomorrow
TV show Writer
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2016
Dead of Summer
TV show Director
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2016
Recovery Road
TV show Director
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2015
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
TV show Director
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2015
Return of the Dragon
Movie Self
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2014
black-ish
TV show Director
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2013
The Tomorrow People
TV show Director
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2013
Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic
Movie Self
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2012
Arrow
TV show Director
More credits
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2011
Once Upon a Time
TV show Director
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2011
Hart of Dixie
TV show Director
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2011
New Girl
TV show Director
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2011
Switched at Birth
TV show Director
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2009
Directors on Directing
Movie Self
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2009
Drop Dead Diva
TV show Director
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2008
Privileged
TV show Director
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2008
In Plain Sight
TV show Director
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2008
Eli Stone
TV show Director
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2007
Women's Murder Club
TV show Director
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2007
Dirty Sexy Money
TV show Director
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2007
Chuck
TV show Director
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2007
October Road
TV show Director
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2007
Lincoln Heights
TV show Director
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2006
Brothers and Sisters
TV show Director
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2006
Pepper Dennis
TV show Director
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2004
Woman Thou Art Loosed
Movie Director
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2004
Jack & Bobby
TV show Director
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2003
Cold Case
TV show Director
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2003
The O.C.
TV show Director
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2002
Everwood
TV show Director
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2002
L.A. Law: The Movie
Movie Director
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2001
Philly
TV show Director
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2001
The Education of Max Bickford
TV show Director
