Steven Wiig was born and raised in the rugged, isolated Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He grew up drawing, playing in the woods and making home videos with his younger siblings. While studying art and psychology at Northern Michigan University, he worked as a college radio DJ and in-house artist at the local comic book store. After spending a few years in Minnesota playing music, Wiig relocated to Northern California, accepting an offer to work with the band Metallica. Traveling the world for over a decade as writer, photographer, videographer and personal assistant, he appeared in the band's award winning documentary Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (2004) and played the drums in the Metallica side-project Papa Wheelie.