Michael John Petty

• Michael has existed in the entertainment journalism space for over a decade and interviewed actors, screenwriters, producers, and writers alike, including John Rhys-Davies, Zahn McClarnon, Dallas Jenkins, Jon Gunn, Jeremy Adams, Bryan Q. Miller, Marc Guggenheim, and the cast and crew of AMC's "Dark Winds."
• He is an award-winning author and filmmaker. His historical fiction short story, "The Devil's Left Hand," won the Spur Award for "Best Short Western Fiction" in 2025. Previously, his short horror screenplay, "Reaper," received the Platinum Award for "Best Script" at the Los Angeles Horror Competition, and he produced the award-winning western short, "The Territory's Best."
• Michael is a member of the Western Writers of America and has been a recurring guest on podcasts devoted to Chris Carter's "The X-Files" and "Millennium."

Experience

Michael has been covering the entertainment industry long before every celebrity had a podcast. Beginning with Across the Airwaves Productions in 2010, he reviewed a variety of television shows and feature films across various genres. Michael hosted a handful of podcasts on the network before it dissolved in 2017. He has since continued to engage with the digital media space at outlets such as TVLine, Looper, Collider, Superman Homepage, and more. Aside from simply writing about his favorite stories, Michael also writes some fantastical tales of his own, including the supernatural thriller novella, "The Beast of Bear-tooth Mountain" and subsequent installments of the growing Bear-tooth Mountain Archive, as well as various "Weird West" adventures featuring the gunslinger Shane Cassidy.

Education

Michael has a Bachelor of Arts in film and photography from Montana State University.