Michael Joseph McDonald

Michael Joseph McDonald is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, writer, and former ghostwriter whose work explores disability, dignity, and the hidden ways people make meaning of their lives. His films include the Oscar contender Freebird (2021), the White House-screened documentary 6,000 Waiting (2021), the international web series As I Am (2015-2018), and the Webby Award-nominated short On Loneliness (2025). Before directing films, he ghostwrote four nonfiction books and received an Academy of American Poets Prize. He has a weakness for triptychs, overlapping story structures, and Sri Lankan buffalo curd.