Michael Bonfiglio is an Emmy-winning filmmaker. His recent project WHO ARE YOU, CHARLIE BROWN? an animated/documentary hybrid special about Charles Schulz and Peanuts was shortlisted for the IDA’s 2021 Best Feature Documentary award.
That same year, Bonfiglio directed and produced the stand-up comedy special RICKY VELEZ: HERE’S EVERYTHING for HBO as well as the Comedy Central doc PATRICE O’NEAL: KILLING IS EASY about the late comic.
In 2019, he directed and produced the acclaimed HBO special THE GREAT DEPRESH, which combined stand-up comedy with documentary to explore comic Gary Gulman’s lifelong struggles with clinical depression.
Bonfiglio and Judd Apatow’s MAY IT LAST: A PORTRAIT OF THE AVETT BROTHERS premiered at the 2017 SXSW Film Festival where it received the 24 Beats Per Second Audience Award. The film was released theatrically by Oscilloscope Laboratories, and became one of the year’s ten highest-grossing documentaries and aired on HBO.
Bonfiglio has directed two acclaimed films for ESPN’s landmark 30 FOR 30 series: 2012’s YOU DON’T KNOW BO: THE LEGEND OF BO JACKSON and 2016’s Emmy-nominated DOC & DARRYL, which he co-directed with Apatow.
Bonfiglio directed the inaugural season of David Letterman’s Emmy-nominated Netflix series, MY NEXT GUEST NEEDS NO INTRODUCTION. A previous Netflix project –JERRY BEFORE SEINFELD – earned Bonfiglio a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special.
In 2018, Bonfiglio received a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Nonfiction Special for his producing role on Apatow’s THE ZEN DIARIES OF GARRY SHANDLING. The two-part film received two additional Emmy nominations as well as the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Documentary Series.
Bonfiglio also collaborated with Bloomberg Philanthropies and National Geographic on two environmentally-focused feature docs: FROM THE ASHES, which premiered at the 2017 TriBeCa Film Festival, and PARIS TO PITTSBURGH (co-directed with Sidney Beaumont).
Bonfiglio was a director and producer of the Emmy-nominated series OPRAH’S MASTER CLASS, directing 30 episodes over five seasons. Additional directing credits include the MTV specials 9 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF ED SHEERAN and SUMMIT ON THE SUMMIT, the five-part series VISIONARIES: INSIDE THE CREATIVE MIND for OWN, and the Sundance Channel series ICONOCLASTS.
Producing and other credits include the Oscar-nominated PARADISE LOST 3: PURGATORY, CRUDE, PARADISE LOST 2: REVELATIONS, GRAY MATTER, and the Emmy-winning 10 DAYS THAT UNEXPECTEDLY CHANGED AMERICA.