Bio
Nicholas Thurkettle has worn many hats in the creative world – screenwriter, playwright, novelist, journalist, editor, ghostwriter, stage producer/director, actor, feature film story executive and consultant, teacher, production crew member. He works independently in Los Angeles with the continuing goal of bringing good work to audiences anywhere he can find them.
Thurkettle graduated from Bradley University with degrees in Theatre and Music and a Global Scholar option from a semester of study at Hull University in the U.K. At BU he served as chapter president of honorary theatrical fraternity Alpha Psi Omega and worked on dozens of plays both on-stage and backstage; but his greatest success came through writing. Three of his original scripts were produced, and his one-act play Between 3 and 4 won awards from BU’s Creative Expo and the Kennedy Center’s American College Theatre Festival.
KC/ACTF also twice awarded Thurkettle prizes for theatrical criticism. He honed those skills writing hundreds of arts/entertainment features for school newspaper The Bradley Scout and city paper The Peoria Journal Star. The ACTF awards earned him a prestigious fellowship from the National Critics Institute to attend the National Playwrights’ Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Center in Waterford, Connecticut.
Thurkettle got his foot in the Hollywood door through a script-reading internship for independent film producer J. Todd Harris (The Kids Are All Right) at the 20th Century Fox-based feature film production company Davis Entertainment Classics. He rose to the position of Director of Development, focusing on the creative development of such films as 29 Palms, Devil’s Pond, and the festival sensation Burial Society. He then followed Harris to IPW Productions to serve as Director of Development and head of the story internship program, where he developed projects based on IPW’s massive catalog of re-make and adaptation rights, one of which became Dimension Films’ 2010 release Piranha 3-D. When independent financier/producer Room 9 Entertainment (Thank You For Smoking) purchased his comedy screenplay Queen Lara, it started him on the path to ending his career on the executive side and focusing on the creative side.
Beyond his screenwriting, the life of a writer has seen his work appear in many venues – on-stage, in print from magazines to literary journals, in corporate training films, and even on the reality show blog/podcast I’m Not Here to Make Friends. He also publishes photos, movie reviews, travel stories, and much more on his weblog The Theory of Chaos, where he has posted over a million words.
He has simultaneously maintained an active schedule of theatre work, not just as a writer, but as an actor and occasional director. Favorite acting roles have included Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, Valentine in Arcadia, and Renfield in Dracula, staged at the legendary Long Beach Playhouse.
Thurkettle also enjoys lending a hand in film production, and has “crewed” on numerous independently-produced short films and web series. The short film WarZone, for which he served as 1st Assistant Director, played at prestigious film festivals including LA’s Dances With Films and the Vancouver International Film Festival. In 2012 he is planning to produce/direct his own short film, Samantha Gets Back Out There, based on his script, with an eye to submit to festivals.
Thurkettle’s ongoing relationship with his alma mater Bradley University includes an award-winning undergraduate screenwriting course, which he teaches on-line from California every fall. He has guest lectured for Columbia College of Chicago’s “Semester in LA” program, spoken on panels at the Creative Screenwriting Expo and the Willamette Writers Conference, and judged for both UCLA’s MFA Screenwriting Competition and the Nicholl Fellowship.
He enjoys cross-country road trips, roller-coasters, and competing on game shows; and is a proud member of the Writers Guild of America.