Michael Robert Vickerman is a native of Minneapolis, Minnesota and attended film school at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee before transferring to Columbia Film School. He began working as a professional writer at the age of 20 while working as a production assistant for Sylvester Stallone's White Eagle Entertainment. Stallone read a screenplay Vickerman had written for a school project and subsequently commissioned him to write scripts for his company, including uncredited rewrites on the International blockbuster Cliffhanger (1993).

Shortly after graduation Vickerman was hired by Law Brothers Entertainment to write and develop both a screenplay and children's books for their toy creation "Kung Fu Kangaroos." The movie became Warriors of Virtue (1997), a $35 million MGM production that was released in 1997. Over the next fifteen years Vickerman wrote, directed and/or produced eighteen films.

In 2002, Vickerman directed Clover Bend (2002), starring the late Robert Urich and David Keith and in 2004 wrote and directed Warriors of Virtue: The Return to Tao (2002), shot entirely in Beijing, China.