Michael Essington is an American author and poet, most famous for his Mike Check column. Over the years, Essington has done dozens of celebrity interviews, as well as hundreds of music reviews. The weekly Mike Check column, which appears in Strange Reaction, and the very popular Deep Red Magazine. Essington's column is read weekly by thousands of fans from Los Angeles to Singapore to Denmark.

As an original member of the early Los Angeles punk rock scene, Essington was a member of several bands and later a popular flyer illustrator.

Essington has written since his high school days. He lives with his wife, Elizabeth, son Lucas, and a pug named Max, that Essington suspects may have a learning disability or a general lack of life goals.