Michael Zelniker

Michael Zelniker is a Canadian born actor, director, and screenwriter. He is best known for his performance as Red Rodney in Clint Eastwood's Academy Award-winning film Bird and as Doug Alward in The Terry Fox Story (1983), for which he won a Genie Award for Best Supporting Actor at the 5th Genie Awards in 1984.

Early life and education Originally from Montreal, Quebec, Zelniker studied acting and theatre at Dawson College, Dome Theatre.

Career Zelniker appeared in the films Pick-up Summer (1980), Ticket to Heaven (1981), Heartaches (1981), Bird (1988), Glory Enough for All (1991), Naked Lunch (1991), Queens Logic (1991), Mercenary (1996) and Snide and Prejudice (1997), and made guest appearances in the television series The Littlest Hobo, In the Heat of the Night, Murder, She Wrote, Profiler, Strong Medicine, The Dead Zone and Millennium.

He wrote the screenplay for the 1998 film Stuart Bliss, in which he also played the title character. Stuart Bliss was also produced by Zelniker, and won the Northampton Film Festival's Best of Fest Award in 1998.

Zelniker wrote, produced, and directed Falling, which won Indie Fest USA International Film Festival's Best of Festival Award in 2012. In 2013 he began teaching Acting for Film, Chekhov Technique and Performing Shakespeare at the Los Angeles Campus of the New York Film Academy after teaching Acting for the Camera, Acting Technique and Shakespeare at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy from 2004 to 2013.

In 2018, Zelniker became a climate leader with the Climate Reality Project, trained by former Vice President Al Gore. He served as the Co-Chair of Climate Reality's Los Angeles Chapter from 2018 - 2021. He wrote, produced, edited and directed, The Issue with Tissue - a boreal love story. a documentary about the little known, largely untold story of the boreal forest and the Indigenous Peoples who call it home.

The Issue with Tissue held its world premiere at Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival on September 18, 2022, where it was recognized with their Audience Choice Runner-up Award. Playing in theaters in Los Angeles, Toronto, Montreal, Marin County and Quebec City and at film festivals across North America, The Issue with Tissue qualified for major awards' consideration, including being nominated for the 2023 Next Generation Indie Film Awards for Best Documentary Feature and the 2026 Raindance Film Festival Best Documentary Feature.

In 2024 Zelniker embarked on a 219 day journey, traveling to 21 countries around the world, focused on uplifting the stories of those on the frontlines of the global water crisis, those whose voices too often go unheard. This transformative journey yielded The Struggle for Mother Water, an 8-part/52 minutes per episode documentary series centered on the women who are waging a courageous, determined fight to protect and defend water. It premiered at the Berlinale International Film Festival in February 2026.

The Struggle for Mother Water also screened at the Taormina Film Festival where Zelniker was recognized for his documentary work with a Special Sustainability Award. The 8-part series be released to the public in the fall of 2026.

Filmography

Film

Television