Michael Tierney is a film director, writer, actor, and musician known for the underground cult feature Evicted (1999). His work explores survival, identity, and the overlooked edges of American life.
Born in Los Angeles and raised on Wonderland Avenue in a home his father built, Tierney grew up surrounded by Hollywood myths and legendary artists of the time.
Tierney’s own path through film has not been easy-or mainstream. Initially a music and composition major at Saddleback college, he also attended the Dick Grove School of Music while driving a truck for many years in Hollywood. Encouraged by his uncle Lawrence to give acting a try, Michael did a few bit roles before discovering screenwriting.
After being evicted in 1992 from the Fontenoy Towers in Hollywood, he threw a week-long party and turned the experience into his debut film. He wrote, produced, directed, scored, and starred in the comedy Evicted (1999), shot and finished on 16mm for $100,000, landing his uncle Lawrence Tierney (Hollywood’s legendary tough guy) in what became his final screen role.
Rejected by every major festival-Sundance (three times), Slamdance, and the Los Angeles Film Festival-Evicted eventually found its home as the opening-night film of the inaugural Melbourne Underground Film Festival in July 2000. Its mix of punk energy, no-budget chaos, and often hilariously brutal reviews has earned it a cult following among underground and outsider-cinema fans.
After the film wound up on shelves at Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, Netflix (DVD), and countless mom-and-pop shops, Tierney spent five restless years in the mid-2000s working around the world in the adult industry as "Joe Blow," a loose evolution of his character Micro from Evicted. He eventually became one of the most reliable male performers in the business, traveling regularly between Budapest, Prague, Miami, Medellín, Montreal, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles, "working" with hundreds of the industry’s most well-known female stars.
He exited the adult scene in late 2010, punctuated by the documentary The Last Days of Joe Blow, directed by MUFF founder Richard Wolstencroft. The film became his re-entry point into indie cinema, screening at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival, Monster Fest, and Revelation Film Festival in 2013, and serving as a documented archive of his adult-world experience.
In recent years, he has redirected his energy into writing, music, and long-term digital projects. Most recently, the archival restoration of the 25-year history of the Melbourne Underground Film Festival, rebuilding its legacy by hand through original HTML and meticulous digital preservation.
In March 2025, Tierney produced and released an expanded edition of the Evicted soundtrack. Evicted Theme Deluxe Edition (2025) features alternate and extended versions of the film's theme music, along with dialogue excerpts and bonus material. It is now streaming on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon Music, Deezer, Pandora, and more.
