Mike White

He frequently collaborates with actor–writer Jack Black on films. Together they formed the production company Black and White, which closed in 2006. White is not a fan of classic rock, but he wrote School of Rock specifically so Black could perform his own favorite rock music.

Laura Dern brought White into a project with HBO which became the series Enlightened that premiered on October 10, 2011. White himself had suffered an on-the-job meltdown while running an earlier television series and incorporated elements of that experience into the new series' plot. Dern's character Amy Jellicoe goes to a Hawaiian retreat after her meltdown and is introduced to meditation, echoing to a degree White's own exploration of Buddhist meditation, and the character Jellicoe tries to continue the discipline as she resumes her working life. White wrote the pilot and all the episodes in the first and second seasons.

He was a member of the US Dramatic Jury at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

White made his directorial debut with the self-penned Year of the Dog at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. White is a vegan animal rights supporter and received an award from animal rights group PETA for Year of the Dog, which was also the third screenplay of White's to be nominated for Best Screenplay at the Independent Film Awards. (He won for The Good Girl.)

White was a writer and producer on Dawson's Creek and Freaks and Geeks and wrote and acted in the films Chuck & Buck, The Good Girl, Orange County, School of Rock and Nacho Libre. He also had a role in the 2004 remake of The Stepford Wives, and the 2008 film Smother. Chuck & Buck was named the best film of 2000 by Entertainment Weekly. In an interview with The New York Times, Jeff Bridges called White's performance in Chuck and Buck "the performance of the decade".

White was born in Pasadena, California. He attended Polytechnic School and Wesleyan University. White is the son of Lyla Lee (née Loehr), a fundraising executive, and Reverend Dr. Mel White (James Melville White), a former speechwriter and ghostwriter for Religious Right figures such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. White is openly bisexual. His father came out as gay in 1994.

Michael Christopher White (born June 28, 1970) is an American writer, actor and producer for television and film and the winner of the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award for Chuck & Buck. He has written the screenplays for films such as School of Rock (2003) and Nacho Libre (2006) and has additionally directed several films that he has written such as Brad's Status (2017). He was the co-creator, executive producer, writer, director and actor on the HBO series Enlightened. White is also known for his appearances on reality television, competing on two seasons of The Amazing Race and later becoming a contestant and runner-up on Survivor.