Michael Marshall (Smith) was born in England in 1965. He spent his early years in the United States, South Africa and Australia, returning to England in 1973. He attended Chigwell School in Essex and then went up to King's College, Cambridge, where he read Philosophy and Social and Political Science. He also became heavily involved in the Cambridge Footlights, serving as a committee member and writing and performing many shows including the 1987 UK and 1988 US Tours. He subsequently co-wrote and performed two award-winning series of BBC Radio 4's cult show AND NOW, IN COLOUR.
Michael worked for a number of years as a graphic designer and writer of corporate videos, while starting to write short fiction. These stories have been published in anthologies and magazines in the US, UK and Europe. He is a five-time winner of the British Fantasy Award, and a six-time World Fantasy Award nominee. Many stories are collected in MORE TOMORROW AND OTHER STORIES, winner of the International Horror Guild Award in 2003 (and, in French translation, of the Prix Bob Morane in 2009). A previous collection, WHAT YOU MAKE IT, was published in the UK by HarperCollins.
His first novel, ONLY FORWARD, won the August Derleth and Philip K. Dick awards. His second - SPARES - was optioned for film by DreamWorks and translated into seventeen languages. His third, ONE OF US, was optioned by Warner Brothers. His fourth - and the first to be published under the name Michael Marshall - THE STRAW MEN, was an international bestseller, as was his fifth - titled THE LONELY DEAD in the UK (HarperCollins), and THE UPRIGHT MAN in the US (Jove) and sixth, BLOOD OF ANGELS. THE STRAW MEN is currently being released as a comic series by Zenoscope Entertainment.
February 2009 saw the UK paperback publication of THE SERVANTS, a short novel under the new name M. M. Smith. His Steel Dagger-nominated seventh novel - THE INTRUDERS - is currently in series development with the BBC. His most recently-published novel KILLER MOVE is out in hardcover in the UK, and paperback in the US.
Smith has also worked extensively as a screenwriter, writing for clients in LA and London. He is currently co-producing and co-writing a feature film based on one of his own short stories (HELL HATH ENLARGED HERSELF), adapting a Stephen King story for television, and co-writing with Stephen Jones an animated monster movie for children called MONSTERMANIA, for Uli Meyer Animation.
He currently lives in Santa Cruz, California, with his wife and son.
