Michael Maren is a former Peace Corps volunteer, aid worker, and war correspondent. All told, he spent seventeen years in Africa covering wars and famines in Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia and other hot spots on the continent. In 1999, after the publication of his book about Somalia and foreign aid, The Road to Hell, he began working as a screenwriter. He sold scripts to HBO, Sony and independent producers.

In 2012 he wrote and directed his first feature film, A Short History of Decay. His second feature, Shriver, is now in production.