Michael Paxton (born March 29, 1957) is an American filmmaker and writer. He has directed, produced, and written several films, both live action and animated, as well as plays and books. His feature documentary Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature and a Golden Satellite Award for Best Documentary film in 1997. Paxton currently works as Multimedia Producer for the Ayn Rand Institute.