Mike Binder began his career as a stand-up comedian in Detroit. As a teenager, he was one of the youngest comics to ever appear on national television, and was regularly featured on "The Tonight Show," "The Merv Griffin show," and "Late Night with David Letterman." He toured the country as an opening act performing in Las Vegas and colleges with top musical acts such as Kenny Loggins and The Pointer Sisters.
He helmed two of his own HBO Specials and was featured on several of the early HBO Young Comedians Specials. He appeared on HBO'S COMEDY STORE TRIBUTE with Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, and Richard Pryor.
His first produced screenplay COUPE DE VILLE was directed by Joe Roth and released by Universal Studios. His directorial debut was CROSSING THE BRIDGE, a critically acclaimed coming-of-age piece from Touchstone films. He wrote and directed INDIAN SUMMER for Touchstone and spent two years writing, directing, and acting in THE MIND OF A MARRIED MAN; a true water cooler show for HBO that pushed buttons, provoked thoughts, and, more importantly, made people laugh.
His independent features THE SEARCH FOR JOHN GISSING won the critics award at the Sarasota film festival and THE SEX MONSTER received both best film and best actor nods for Mike at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen.
As an actor, he appeared in Rod Lurie's THE CONTENDER with Joan Allen, in Steven Spielberg's MINORITY REPORT with Tom Cruise, and Rebecca Miller's SECRET LIVES OF PIPPA LEE with Robin Wright Penn and Alan Arkin.
He wrote, directed, and acted in the critically acclaimed comedy THE UPSIDE OF ANGER with Joan Allen and Kevin Costner which opened the 2005 Sundance film festival, as well as REIGN OVER ME for Sony Pictures starring Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle. He has written screenplays for Steven Speilberg, Robert Zemeckis, Julia Roberts, Jim Carrey, and Tim Allen.
His film, BLACK & WHITE, which he produced, wrote, and directed, starred Kevin Costner, Octavia Spencer, Anthony Mackie, and Bill Burr. It had it's world premiere on Sept 6, 2014 at the Toronto International Film Festival.
He first novel, KEEP CALM, came out Feb.3, 2016, from Henry Holt, and was optioned by New Line Cinema's and producers Chuck Roven and Alex Gartner and Kate Winslet to adapt as a ltd. series for Ms. Winslet to star in.
In 2020 Binder returned to his stand-up roots and produced, wrote, directed and hosted a five part documentary series for Showtime that is now available on Amazon Prime called THE COMEDY STORE that he stars along side David Letterman, Jay Leno, Whoopi Goldberg, Jim Carrey, Michael Keaton, Bill Burr, Joe Rogan, Whitney Cummings, Sebastion Manascalo, Mark Maron, Bob Saget and many others. He also that year produced and directed Bill Burr's wildly successful Netflix special, PAPER TIGER. In 2022, he will release another book, and an audio book, DREAM DAMN BIG - '11 Steps The monsters of Stand-Up Comedy all took to reach break-out success, and how you can use them in any field you have a dream to conquer'. via Standupworld Publishing, and another Bill Burr special for shot at Red Rocks arena in Denver Colorado.
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