An alumnus of California Institute of the Arts, Mike Mitchell started his career as a directed and worked on Matt O'Callaghan's The Itsy Bitsy Spider in 1994. However, he gained prominence with the award-winning short film Herd in 1999, which he wrote, directed and produced. After his successful stint at the short films, in the same year, Mitchell made his feature film directorial debut with Rob Schneider's Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo.

Having donned the art and direction departments of famous production companies, his work at Disney, DreamWorks Animations, Nickelodeon, MTV, Sony, and Universal are among some of the notable credits. He has worked on famous animated film series such as Alvin and the Chipmunks, Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, and The SpongeBob Squarepants. His other credits include The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part.