Born and raised in the farmland of the American Midwest, J.M. started directing experimental films while studying abroad in Berlin. After graduating Princeton University studying media theory, he honed his craft behind the camera by making short commercial documentaries across Asia, Africa, North and South America. A lifelong musician, he looks for musicality and poetry in the lives of real people while pushing the documentary form into non-traditional and narrative places.
As a seasoned editor, his latest feature is the 2022 Emmy-nominated documentary on Kanye West for Netflix, jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy, and he's also won Jury Awards at the Sundance Film Festival (Non-Fiction) and SXSW Film Festival (Fiction). As a commercial director, he has accrued numerous awards at Cannes, Clios, UKVMAs, Adweek and beyond.