Michael Davis lives and maintains a studio in New York City. He has not only worked in comic books, but also in television shows and reading programs. He pursued training as an illustrator at the High School of Art and Design and the Pratt Institute. His first comic book work was 'Etc', and it appeared under DC's Piranha Press imprint in 1987. That same year, he founded his media company Bad Boy Studios, which became known for its mentor program in support of young artists.
Together with fellow African-American comic authors Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan and Derek T. Dingle he founded Milestone Media in 1992 in an attempt to correct the low representation of minorities in American comics. With its distribution deal with Time Warner, the company spawned a full-scale multicultural universe of comic characters and has sold over 10 million copies worldwide. Among the Milestone titles were 'Hardware', 'Blood Syndicate', 'Icon' and 'Static'.
Davis was assigned president and CEO of Motown Animatino and Filmworks, and became involved in the development of TV shows at Disney, ABC, WB and Fox. He is among others responsible for the successful Cartoon Network animation series 'Static Shock!'. He is furthermore the author of the comics based reading program 'The Action Files', and one of the driving forces behind the Magic Media reading program and the Los Angeles Comics Arts Festival. By 2006, Davis began an association with the black publisher Urban Ministries Inc. and created the Christian comic book line 'The Guardian Line' that features titles lke 'Code', 'Jesse', 'Joe' and 'The Messenger'.