Dr. Miami - Plastic Surgeon, Family and Childhood

Michael Salzhauer was born on April 16, 1972, in New York City, USA, and was raised in Rockland County, New York. His father was born in Israel, while his mother was from the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

He first developed an interest in the medical field as early as at four years old when his father gifted him a stethoscope. He finally decided to become a surgeon after watching the television show 'M.A.S.H.'

He attended Adolph Schreiber Hebrew Academy of Rockland in Monsey and Moriah School in Englewood, New Jersey. In his freshman year, he got into Tappan Zee High School where he was teased for having "big Jewish Schnoz". He later enrolled into The Frisch Yeshiva High School in Paramus, New Jersey.

After graduating from school, he attended Rockland Community College during 1989-90, after which he studied Psychology at Brooklyn College for two years. He finally completed his graduation from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri.

After graduating from medical college, Dr. Miami initially decided to move to Birmingham, Alabama to train under a world renowned surgeon he admired. However, his wife convinced him to move to Miami Beach in 1996, following which he began his training in Plastic Surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center and The University of Miami.

He served as a resident for six years, and then became an aesthetic surgery fellow at The Cleveland Clinic in Weston. He started practicing at his own chamber in Bal Harbor starting in 2003.

In 2008, he wrote the children's book 'My Beautiful Mommy', which was intended to explain to little children how plastic surgery works in the simplest way possible. However, critics thought the book glamorizes plastic surgery and might undermine the self-esteem of children.

He released a virtual plastic surgery app for iPhone in 2009, named 'Dr. Miami's Surgeon in a Box', which later earned him his nickname. The software allowed the users to take pictures of themselves and then beautify those as if with plastic surgery.

Dr. Miami has been passionate about music since he was a child and was in a band during his school days. Music took a backseat after he pursued a career as a surgeon, but after he attained celebrity status, he decided to renew his passion for music.

In 2012, he produced the single 'Jewcan Sam' and its accompanying music video, performed by American Jewish pop punk band The Groggers. However, the track, which showed a Jewish teenager opting for rhinoplasty to please a girl, was heavily criticized for both portraying Jewish stereotypes and promoting plastic surgery.

He returned to music in 2017 with the release of the single 'Flawless' in collaboration with recording artist Adam Barta, with whom he also worked on his TV show. The song reached No.24 on the Billboard dance singles chart and also managed to rank at 32 on the Billboard hot club dance chart.

Once one of Dr. Miami's patients mentioned at the end of the consultation that his Instagram profile is boring, and he should post pictures of his work rather than his personal life. He took the advice seriously and started posting pictures of life-changing body transformations on Instagram, which attracted a large number of people to his profile.

Before he started sharing pictures of his work on his profile, he had about a meager 1200 followers. Following that, in less than three months, he reached over 90k followers.

His Instagram fame was short lived as the authorities deleted his Instagram account on February 14, 2015. His teenage daughter suggested that he should try using Snapchat instead.

He started live streaming his surgery on Snapchat straight from his operation theatre the very next day. The initial response was moderate, with about 1800 people turning in for his "story", but within a month, he had over 100k viewers. He gained over a million viewers within a few months and it also worked as a marketing stunt for his job.

Soon, he started to get invitations from schools to deliver inspirational speeches to students. He subsequently became a celebrity, appearing on national television on shows such as 'Dr. Oz' and the 'Steve Harvey Show' and featuring on magazines like 'Vanity Fair', 'Complex Magazine', and 'Vice Magazine'.

In July 2016, he bagged his own reality television show, 'Dr. Miami', which was aired on WE tv. The show ran for six episodes from March to May 2017.

Dr. Miami's Snapchat stories are by far his most popular work among his fans. His book, as well as his music, also contributed to his steadily growing fan base, and helped him land his own television show.

In 2010, Dr. Miami received the Prestigious 'Patient’s Choice Award', which is awarded to very few of the nation’s most highly regarded physicians. He came in second place in the eighth annual 'Shorty Award', in the category Snapchatter of the year, in 2016.

In 1990, Dr. Miami met his wife Eva in the Brooklyn College Kosher-Cafeteria while they both were doing major in Psychology at Brooklyn College. They started dating soon after and eventually got married in 1994.

He is a member of the Orthodox Jewish community, which he angered after appearing on the controversial music video 'Jewcan Sam'. According to him, a recent article about a marriage crisis among young Jewish people inspired him to offer free nose jobs to single Orthodox Jews, which he hoped would result in more marriages.

His whole family is involved with the charitable foundation Chai Lifeline which helps children with cancer. Both he and his sister Leora were honored by the foundation for their contributions, while his daughter Aleah raised $18000 selling her children's book 'The Grumpy Tree'.

Dr. Miami became interested in plastic surgery while studying in college, after his then girlfriend Eva received a scar on her face from a car accident. The plastic surgeon he took her to inspired him to take plastic surgery as a profession and also convinced him to get a nose job done.