Peter Nicks is an Oakland, CA based filmmaker whose work ranges from documentary features and fiction narratives to digital storytelling projects. His last film The Waiting Room was released in 2012 to critical acclaim, being named by the San Francisco Film Critics Circle as the best documentary of 2012 and shortlisted for an Academy Award®. Nicks is now developing The Oakland Police Project, the second of a series of character-driven documentaries exploring the intersections of health care, criminal justice and education in Oakland, CA. Nicks was recently awarded the SFFS/KRF screenwriting grant and named a Film Independent Fellow to develop his first narrative feature Escaping Morgantown, loosely based on the year he spent in federal prison in the early 90s. He received his B.A. in English from Howard University and his Masters of Journalism from UC Berkeley. He lives in the Bay Area with his wife and two children.


Portrait photo courtesy the artist.