Michael Dempster grew up in the rural Washington State enclave that served as the setting for the show Twin Peaks. Bored with the insufferable clean air and the livestock and the trees, he left as soon as he possibly could, fleeing to film school at the Brooks Institute in 2004.

At Brooks he wrote and directed a series of shorts culminating in a thesis film entitled Society Folks. The short depicts a highly-strung divorcee coming to terms with feelings of alienation from her two children and coping with the throes of modern society.

After graduating in 2007, Michael was accepted into the 2008-2009 Project:Involve program. Project:Involve facilitated the production of a short film he directed, For the Last Sixth Time, which won the Vanity Fair Grand Jury Prize as part of their City Stories contest.

Michael currently works in development at Incognito Entertainment while continuing to write and direct.