Michael H. Payne (born February 10, 1965) is an American science fiction and fantasy writer, cartoonist, and reviewer. He holds an M.A. in Classics from the University of California, Irvine, and has hosted the Darkling Eclectica, a radio program originally on Saturday mornings, now on Sunday afternoons, on KUCI for 40 years.

Payne's novel The Blood Jaguar (Tor Books, 1998) and most of his short stories utilize talking animal characters: his novelette "Crow's Curse" won third place in the Writers of the Future contest in 1991 and his short story "Familiars" won the Ursa Major Award in 2002. His cartoons as well, published in the New Horizons anthology from Shanda Fantasy Arts and on his websites, take animals, give them intelligence, and examine what sorts of multi-cultural societies they might form.

As a reviewer, Payne is a past contributor to Tangent magazine, both in its original print edition and in its early online form, and his capsule book reviews began appearing in 1999 on the website of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America before being moved in August 2009 to the "members only" section of the site's discussion forum. Payne is the head co-ordinator for SFWA's Circulating Book Plan and was named the 2013 recipient of the Kevin O'Donnell Jr. Service to SFWA award for his work on the Plan. He was the Registrar for the Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards and came in second in the Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge with his webcomic Daily Grind after 15 years of daily updates. He lives on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, California, where he works for the public library and is a cantor and guitar player at the local Catholic church.