Michael L. Grace
Along with British composer Thomas Lowe, Michael L. Grace recently completed two new musicals, A Voyage to Freedom and Runner-Up, which will be produced next year in the U.K. and London.
After returning from graduate school in the UK, Michael joined the William Morris Agency as an assistant and later was assigned to work for Elvis Presley’s manager, Colonel Parker, as part of Elvis Presley Promotion, first at MGM and then Paramount. He then left Parker and worked for McCann Erickson Advertising before joining MSEI Public Relations, later ICPR, where he served accounts including Mission Impossible, A&M Records and Paramount. This experience gave him a strong background in marketing, promotion and public relations, but his genuine interest was in writing and producing. Michael began producing in the theatre and was part of the team (producer and writer) that created the internationally performed award-winning musical Snoopy!!! and the reimagined The World According to Snoopy, based on Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. He also produced P.S. Your Cat Is Dead by Pulitzer Prize-winning author James Kirkwood. In addition, he wrote the thriller Final Cut and the one-person play JFK – The Man Behind the Myth, which was developed for HBO and played theatrically.
Michael began writing screenplays, selling his second to Universal. He then worked in TV development and wrote for the nighttime series Paper Dolls, Knots Landing, Family and the long-running series The Love Boat. He wrote numerous two-hour Love Boat specials starring Oscar winners and Hollywood stars, including Anne Baxter, Olivia de Havilland, George Kennedy, Cloris Leachman and Tim Robbins. This experience prompted him to write It’s The Love Boat. In addition, he has written movies for TV, including Dangerous and the thriller Lady Killer starring Emmy and Tony winner Judith Light, authored various pilots, and developed screenplays for Kevin Costner and John Travolta. He recently finished a thriller novel, Vengeance Is Mine.
Having visited over fifty countries and sailed on over forty cruise ships, Michael has written travel articles for major publications. He is also a maritime historian, writing a history of The Grace Line, and has lectured at universities. In 2008, Michael created the award-winning website Cruising The Past, which features social and travel history and has over 1800 posts.