Michael Ventura is an American novelist, screenwriter, film director, essayist, and cultural critic. He began his career as a journalist at the Austin Sun in the 1970s. In 1978, Ventura co-founded the LA Weekly alongside Joie Davidow, Jay Levin, and Ginger Varney.
He is widely recognized for his long-running column, "Letters at 3 A.M.", which first appeared in LA Weekly in the early 1980s and continued in the Austin Chronicle until 2015.