Michel is a first generation American born in Manhattan on April 16,1960 to parents who narrowly survived the Holocaust. They themselves sprung from the Great Diaspora, which began for their parents in Moscow, Odessa, Kiev and the Ukraine. Michel＇s mother, Nadine Gill, lives in New York, his father, James Vladimir Gill, lived in Switzerland until his death in 1995. James was less pre-occupied with having survived the horrible events of the 30＇s and 40＇s and more concerned about how he was going to survive survival.