[7][8] Many sources incorrectly state that he was born on a kibbutz in the then-British mandate of Palestine,[9][10][11][12] and that his Jewish family immigrated to Toronto, Ontario when he was an infant.

[13] Michaels and his two younger siblings were raised in Toronto; he attended Forest Hill Collegiate Institute.

[17] He moved to Los Angeles from Toronto in 1968 to work as a writer for Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show.

The show, which is performed live in front of a studio audience, immediately established a reputation for being cutting-edge and unpredictable.

On the episode airing November 20, 1976, musical guest George Harrison appeared, but Michaels told him the offer was conditional on all four members of the group showing up.

[24] The only movie to be produced from Michaels's MGM deal was Nothing Lasts Forever, a black-and-white surreal sci-fi comedy written and directed by longtime resident SNL filmmaker Tom Schiller.

The movie featured appearances from Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd, but the studio opted to never release it.

[25] In 1979, Michaels founded the production company Broadway Video, which has produced SNL since 1981 as well as other shows such as Canadian sketch-comedy The Kids in the Hall which began airing in 1988 on CBC in Canada, debuting in the US market in 1989 on cable television network HBO until moving to CBS in 1993.

[31] In 2025, Michaels donated his archives to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

[33] In The Kids in the Hall movie Brain Candy, the character of Don Roritor was based heavily on actor Mark McKinney’s impersonation of Lorne Michaels.

Evil, the antagonist of Austin Powers in three films, has mannerisms and a speaking style based on Lorne Michaels.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, original Saturday Night Live cast member Dan Aykroyd described the show as "the primary satirical voice of the country".

[47] In 2022, Michaels received a Peabody Award for his work as an executive producer of the Spanish-language comedy series Los Espookys.