Michael L. Clay is a listener, a helper, a man of many talents who wears those hats proudly to aid others in cultivating their stories. His forms of expression are through the art mediums of filmmaking, photography, creative writing and educational programming. As a Multimedia Visual Storyteller and CEO of Driven by Design Creative Agency LLC, Michael’s talents’ have given him the opportunity to use all those skillsets working on projects with the Smithsonian Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage as the filmmaker & creative director with By the People Project, Library of Congress as the photographer for the Community on the Line Soul Line Dancing, African American Museum of Philadelphia, and the University of Pennsylvania MAKUU Center played his first family documentary On the Garry: A Generation of Oral Traditions along with discussions centered around family traditions and conversation just to name a few.

In January 2025, Michael’s love for teaching creative writing manifested into a creative writing board game called Story Driven: Unlocking Writer’s Block. Story Driven is a fun, 4-6 player game that caters to its players’ writing level while opening the door to free form expression.

In Summer 2026, Michael & his wife put on 3 part series called Story Driven presents Shining A Light On Our Stories to help families begin sharing their family stories with one another on his life sized version of his board game (1,200 sq ft). Families walked the board as the pieces, wrote and filmed their stories. See Highlights. Now Michael's taking his big board on the road.

His passion lies in the intention of family conversation to find your roots while finding yourself along your path. Michael’s first documentary On the Garry is a testament to that walk and discovering so much more at the same time.