Mike was born on April 20th 1967 in Long Beach, Long Island, New York.
He grew up learning to play the drums primarily self-taught by listening to his early biggest influences: Ringo Starr, Keith Moon and John Bonham.
As he developed a taste for more challenging progressive music, his biggest influences were Neil Peart and Frank Zappa.

He attended the Berklee College Of Music on a scholarship in 1985 which is where he formed the band Dream Theater with whom he sustained a successful career for 25 years, developingh a tremendously devoted fanbase and record sales of almost 10 million copies worldwide.

Mike's long list of Awards include 26 Modern Drummer Magazine Reader's Poll Awards including Hall of Fame Inductee in 2004, MVP of the Year in 2010, Best Progressive Rock Drummer (for the magazine's record of 12 years in a row), Best Clinician (twice), Best Educational Video/DVD for Liquid Drum Theater, and Best Recorded Performance of the Year (7 times) for Dream Theater's Awake, A Change of Seasons, Falling Into Infinity, Scenes From A Memory, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, Score and Avenged Sevenfold's Nightmare. He also holds the distinction being the 2nd youngest drummer ever inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame (while age 37) and is currently the youngest in the Hall of Fame.