A Native of Melbourne, Australia, Michael Rymer studied at the University of Southern California. He made his directorial debut from his own screenplay Angel Baby which premiered at Sundance in 1996 and earned seven Australian Film Institute Awards including Best Picture, Best Direction, Best Screenplay.

In 1997, Rymer directed Miramax’s In Too Deep . In 2001, he directed Queen of the Damned. Rymer has directed two improvisational features: Allie and Me, and Perfume. Rymer delved into producing, as well as writing and directing the Australian feature, Face to Face, based on the acclaimed play by David Williamson. The film won forty awards at international festivals.

Rymer directed the reimagined mini series and pilot of Battlestar Galactica which won a Hugo Award, a Peabody Award and an AFI Award. Rymer was nominated for an Emmy for directing the three hour series finale. Rymer was invited to become the Supervising Producer/Director on BSG, a role he performed for several years on the show. He was then invited to take on a similar role on NBC’s Hannibal, where he also directed a dozen episodes including the series finale.
Rymer has directed episodes of Flash Forward as well as episodes of The Killing, Longmire, Jessica Jones, Man in the High Castle, and American Horror Story for which he was nominated for a DGA Award.

Rymer has recently directed several prestigious Australian Mini-series - Deadline Gallipoli for Matchbox Pictures and Foxtel, the finale of Picnic at Hanging Rock for Fremantle Media and Foxtel, The Gloaming for ABC International and STAN. And opening and closing episodes of Fires, for the Australian Broadcasting Company and NBC Universal, for which he received an Australian Director’s Guild Nomination.

In 2024, Michael co-founded MAGI PICTURES with esteemed screenwriter SHIRLEY PIERCE with the aim of producing high quality international genre drama, based on the Gold Coast, Queensland.