Michael Shanks (filmmaker)

Template:About Template:Use Australian English Template:Infobox person Michael Shanks is an Australian filmmaker, actor and composer, known for directing Together (2025) and The Wizards of Aus (2016). He also created the YouTube channel timtimfed, which has been active since September 2006.

Career

As a grade 12 student, Shanks won the 2008 film competition run by The Escapist to produce a web series pilot episode. The pilot developed into Doomsday Arcade, a 25-part web series. Shanks views creating the series "as [his] film school".

In 2013, Shanks wrote and directed the short film Time Trap. He also directed music videos for Guy Pearce. He directed a segment of a 2015 episode of the Adult Swim series Off the Air.

In 2016, he both directed and starred in the SBS comedy-fantasy series The Wizards of Aus. Shanks plays a wizard who emigrates to Melbourne and faces backlash from the local community. Originally devised as a six-part online series, it aired on SBS 2 as three thirty-minute episodes.

Shanks directed the sketch comedy series The Slot in 2017. Two years later he directed the short film Rebooted.

His feature directorial debut, Together, screened at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Starring Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple who encounter a supernatural transformation, the body horror film was distributed by Neon, who acquired the film for $17 million.

In September 2025, Shanks is set to direct and produce his script, Hotel Hotel Hotel Hotel, which, prior to being picked up by A24, was included in 2021's The Black List of the "most-liked" unproduced screenplays.

Influences

Shanks has named Lord of the Rings, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Monty Python as early creative inspirations. He has also named filmmakers Edgar Wright, Ari Aster, David Lynch, Thom Yorke, John Carpenter, Peter Jackson, Bong Joon Ho, and M. Night Shyamalan as influences.

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Functioned as				Notes	Role	Template:Abbr
		Director	Screenwriter	Composer	Actor
2013	Time Trap	Template:Ya	Template:Ya	Template:Ya	Template:Na	Short	Template:N/A
2019	Rebooted	Template:Ya	Template:Ya	Template:Ya	Template:Ya	Short	10,000 Sandals Director
2019	Parked	Template:Ya	Template:Na	Template:Na	Template:Na	Short
2025	Together	Template:Ya	Template:Ya	Template:Na	Template:Ya	Feature debut	Simon

Television

Year	Film	Functioned as				Notes	Role	Template:Abbr
		Director	Screenwriter	Composer	Actor
2015	Off the Air	Template:Ya	Template:Ya	Template:Na	Template:Ya	Season 5, episode 3: "Stare Down"
2016	The Wizards of Aus	Template:Ya	Template:Ya	Template:Ya	Template:Ya	Co-written with Nicholas Issell	Jack
2018	The Slot	Template:Ya	Template:Ya	Template:Na	Template:Ya	Shanks directed episode 5; Co-written with Nicholas Issell

External links

• Official website
• Template:IMDb name
• Timtimfed YouTube channel