Michka Assayas was born on 2 November 1958. A former student of the École Normale Supérieure de Saint-Cloud, he took part in Rock & Folk and Liberation from 1980, as a specialist in postpunk rock, a minority movement at the time (New Order, the Smiths, etc.). Literary critic at Liberation and editorial writer at Inrockuptibles, in the 1990s he oversaw the writing of the Dictionnaire du rock, of the Bouquins collection at Robert Laffont. In 2005, his book of conversations with Bono, the singer of the group U2, was published and has been translated worldwide.

Michka Assayas, also a writer, has published several stories and novels, including Exhibition, which won the Deux-Magots prize in 2003, and Faute d’identité in 2011. From 2008 to 2012, he produced a weekly rock show on France Musique called Subjectif 21. Published in 2014, Le Nouveau dictionnaire du rock is the most complete encyclopaedia on rock in the world, comprising of 3000 pages. Since 2015, he has produced the Very Good Trip program for France Inter.