Michael Hirsh (born 1948) is a Belgian-born Canadian citizen. He has been a significant figure in the Canadian television industry, or more specifically children's programming, since the 1980s. Born in Belgium in 1948, Michael's family emigrated to North America when he was a child; he was raised primarily in Toronto and New York. After high school, Michael attended York University in Toronto where he would meet his future business partner, Patrick Loubert. Hirsh abandoned his post-secondary education after three years to pursue his filmmaking ambitions. In 1971, Hirsh co-founded Nelvana with Patrick Loubert and British-born animation artist Clive A. Smith. Under co-CEO Hirsh's leadership, the studio was responsible for many of its animated phenomena. In the 1980s, Hirsh saved Nelvana from more than one brush with bankruptcy. After the failure of their initial feature film, Rock & Rule, the original distributor of their live-action show, T and T, went out of business. Defying advice to fold the company, Michael found a replacement distributor within six weeks.