Born in Philadelphia and based in Brooklyn, Michael Chaiken has over twenty years of archival and curatorial experience. As an undergraduate at Temple University, he worked at the Harvard Film Archive, becoming the Program Director for Film @ International House Philadelphia from 2000-2005.

Curatorial work brought him to New York City where he organized, cataloged, and assisted in the sale of several notable cultural archives including those of Maysles Films, Inc., The Norman Mailer Estate, The Nicholas Ray Estate, filmmaker Ousmane Sembène, author Renata Adler, Pennebaker-Hegedus Films, and the Bob Dylan Music Company.

In 2015, Chaiken was appointed the Inaugural Curator of the Bob Dylan Archive, a position he held until 2021, occupying a foundational role in the planning and creation of the Bob Dylan Center that opened in Tulsa, Oklahoma in May 2022.

Since 2009, he has worked collaboratively with the Criterion Collection as a writer, producer, and director and as archivist to the filmmakers Josh and Benny Safdie.