Michael Speaker grew up in Portland Oregon in a musical family. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Oregon and an MFA in painting from the University of Colorado in Boulder Colorado. He moved to Los Angeles working in the movie business as a IATSE local 816, scenic artist and as a special effects sculptor and modelmaker. Since the middle eighties he has been doing his own work as well as commissioned work too. His work is mostly in private collections.

He lives with his wife Flavia, in Richfield, MN. They recently moved from the lower Hudson River Valley of New York.