GrantMichael
Emmy Award-Winning Strategic Communicator & Storyteller
I've spent a decade at the intersection of documentary storytelling and strategic communication. I help organizations find the human truth at the center of complex ideas, then communicate it in ways that actually land.
Working Philosophy
Start with what's true. Build toward what matters. Don't stop until it's worth someone's attention.
Documentaries
Trusted By
01About
Ten years at the intersection
of documentary craft and
strategic communication.
My background is in documentary filmmaking and creative leadership, but the part of the work I've always been most drawn to is the human side of communication. It's the challenge of taking something complex, technical, or abstract and making it feel relatable and meaningful to real people.
In my current role, I lead storytelling and communications projects for organizations across healthcare, technology, energy, and manufacturing. Most of that work centers on employee engagement, culture, executive messaging, and mission-driven communications. I'm especially interested in the role storytelling can play inside organizations: helping people feel connected to a mission, creating clarity around complex work, and building trust through honest, human communication.
Outside of work, I'm passionate about fly fishing (my film On The Stream is making its festival run), photography, and adventures with my kids.
02Selected Work
Hard, Selfless, Urgent Work
The phrase came from Lilly's own people, not a branding workshop. This employer-brand film turns that internal truth into a recruitment and retention story that resonates precisely because no one manufactured it.
03Creative Planning Process
A creative brief that makes the case for why the hard, selfless, urgent work at Lilly, from coders to chemists, is worth doing and worth wanting to be part of.
A brief for a film built to rally communities around local solar projects. Its case is made through the stories of people whose lives renewable energy has already changed.
Color and visual-direction notes for On the Stream, mapping a naturalistic, memory-like look of golden-hour warmth, lifted shadows, and organic texture that honors the film's quiet atmosphere.
04Contact
Good work starts with a conversation.
I take on projects across brand storytelling, documentary work, and strategic communications, and I'm open to the right full-time role too. If you're building something and think I might fit, reach out.