Life and career

Binder grew up in the Detroit suburb of Birmingham. During the summers of 1966 through 1975, he attended Camp Tamakwa, a summer camp in Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada; that experience was the inspiration (and the filming location) for his 1993 film Indian Summer.

Beginning his career as a screenwriter and standup comedian, he had a banner month in March 1990 with the March 9 theatrical premiere of his first screenplay, Coupe de Ville, directed by Joe Roth and co-produced by Mike, and his own HBO stand up comedy special, broadcast the following night.

Binder's directorial debut was with his second screenplay, 1992's Crossing the Bridge.

Binder gained further prominence with his 20-episode 2001-02 HBO comedy series, The Mind of the Married Man, which he co-wrote, co-directed and starred in as the central character "Micky Barnes". That same year, his independently produced film The Sex Monster won "Best Film" and Binder won "Best Actor" at the 2001 Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen.

Binder wrote and directed three mid-2000s films in which he also played supporting roles. The first, The Upside of Anger, starring Joan Allen and Kevin Costner, premiered at the January 2005 Sundance Film Festival; thirteen months later, Man About Town with Ben Affleck, was first seen at the February 2006 Santa Barbara International Film Festival and, after another thirteen months, he directed and appeared in Reign Over Me starring Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle. The three films were co-produced by Sunlight Productions, a company formed by Mike and his brother, Jack Binder. His most recent film is 2014's Black or White, starring Kevin Costner and Octavia Spencer.

As an actor, Binder has appeared in Steven Spielberg's Minority Report with Tom Cruise, Rod Lurie's The Contender with Joan Allen, and Rebecca Miller's The Private Lives of Pippa Lee with Robin Wright Penn.

Binder has directed most of the screenplays he has written, and has acted in many of them as well (in addition to other acting roles). As a writer, his screenplays include films involving Steven Spielberg, Julia Roberts, Robert Zemeckis, Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler, Tim Allen and Reese Witherspoon.

Binder's first novel, Keep Calm, a thriller set in the UK, was published in 2016.

Filmography

Year	Title	Director	Producer	Writer	Actor	Role	Notes
1990	Coupe de Ville		N	N
1992	Crossing the Bridge	N		N
1993	Indian Summer	N		N
1994	Blankman	N			N	Dr. Victor Norris
1999	The Sex Monster	N		N	N	Marty Barnes	Comedy Arts Festival for Best Actor Comedy Arts Festival for Best Film
2000	The Contender				N	Lewis Hollis
2001-2002	The Mind of the Married Man	N		N	N	Micky Barnes	TV show, Creator
2001	Fourplay	N		N	N	Ben Greene
2002	Minority Report				N	Leo Crow
2005	The Upside of Anger	N		N	N	Adam "Shep" Goodman
2006	Man About Town	N		N	N	Morty
2007	Reign Over Me	N		N	N	Bryan Sugarman
2009	The Private Lives of Pippa Lee				N	Sam Shapiro
2011	Fanboy				N	Acting coach
	One Day				N	Dexter's agent	Uncredited
2014	Black or White	N	N	N

[ Source: Wikipedia ]