Born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, California, Michael Crutchfield, AKA MaddMike, was exposed to the true art of storytelling at the age of six after renting out a book named “Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark.” Enthralled by the art of Stephen Gammell and the creepy tales written by Alvin Schwartz, Michael begged his “granny,” Mildred, to walk him back to the library to rent out the subsequent editions of the book, but of course, everyone in the neighborhood kept the books off the shelves. Michael was a weird child, eating spaghetti while watching serial killers stab their prey on the television screen and sleeping to the sounds of chainsaws running and teenagers screaming. Michael would realize his calling at the age of 23 when he jokingly recorded several scary stories off of Reddit during his lunch breaks at his accounting job, which he would upload to YouTube under the name, MaddMike. Little did he realize, these videos would blow up, and he would receive thousands of subscribers weekly. A few years later, Michael’s podcast, The Scarecast, would become one of the most prominent horror story podcasts, amassing over 100,000 downloads monthly. Michael currently juggles the podcast along with his other commitments as a student at the University of Southern California (USC), in which he is pursuing a career in accounting.