Nicholas Thurkettle is a writer, actor, and filmmaker.
His short films have played at 60 festivals and counting, winning awards such as Best Director, People’s Choice – Best Short Film, Best Sci-Fi Short and Best Comedy Short. His short “The Dinner Scene” is distributed by IndieFlix, and he has also directed the web series pilot “Ass in Assassin” and the music video “Sitting on the Launchpad” for the band Freefall Rescue. He is a producer on the supernatural drama feature The Buildout from writer/director Zeshaan Younus, and was co-producer of Adam Stovall’s horror-romance feature A Ghost Waits, which was acquired by boutique horror distributor Arrow Films and currently streams on Shudder in the U.S.
As an actor, he stars in the feature film Moon Students, which won over three dozen awards on the film festival circuit, including a Best Actor prize he shared with his co-star Eddie Navarro. It’s now distributed by Gravitas Ventures. He had major roles in the independent features To a Dead Friend (from Sundance alumni Mike Sakamoto,) Cell, Canyon 365, Cloudy With a Chance of Sunshine, Revelator, The Man With the Whip, and Reclaiming Friendship Park. He made his TV debut on the season 2 finale of Wild West Chronicles, on the INSP Network. His role in the sci-fi/horror short “Prefigured” earned him nominations for Best Supporting Actor at FilmQuest and Best Actor at the Nightmares Film Festival; the film now streams on the scifi channel DUST. He is also the performer behind “Alvin the Alien,” part of a collection of groundbreaking AI chatbots developed by Meta. His roots in acting are on stage, where favorite roles include Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing and Renfield in Dracula. He performed for five seasons with the outdoor summer festival Shakespeare Orange County, also serving as Artistic Associate and Casting Director. He is currently director of the Modjeska Shakespeare Players, producing educational showcases and workshops. He is also a prolific voice actor, playing two animals in the family film Toby’s Big Adventure and performing in the English dubs of projects like the Netflix documentary series Chef’s Table: Pastry, Russian horror-action movie The Last Vampire Princess, and the Malaysian children’s film Upin & Ipin; The Lone Gibbon Kris. He plays a wide variety of characters in videogames like Black Desert Online, Crusaders of Light, and Book of Demons.
Room 9 Entertainment (Thank You For Smoking) purchased his comedy screenplay Queen Lara, which earned him membership in the Writers Guild of America; and he was hired to write the Crunchyroll anime pilot Children of Ether, which premiered on over 300 U.S. movie screens as part of Anime Movie Night. He has three books published – the short story collection Stages of Sleep and the sci-fi thrillers Seeing by Moonlight and A Sickness in Time; the latter two co-written with M.F. Thomas. He also worked with Thomas as Senior Story Editor for the first 38 episodes of his podcast My Dark Path, which tells strange stories from the fringes of history, science, and the paranormal.
He is a writer, producer, director, and performer with the award-winning sci-fi/fantasy/horror anthology audio drama podcast Earbud Theater, as well as producer/head writer of their live stage spin-off. And he narrated over 100 new short stories and novellas from contemporary horror/sci-fi authors for the Parsec Award-winning Brick Moon Fiction Podcast. His plays have been produced on regional stages in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, West Virginia, Maryland, and throughout California, including at the OC-Centric New Play Festival and the Hollywood Fringe Festival. His one-act play The Rothko is represented for licensing by publisher Heartland Plays and is his first play to be produced internationally, at a festival in Taipei, Taiwan.
Thurkettle guest lectures, teaches workshops, and conducts private coaching in voice acting, storytelling, and screenwriting. He has spoken on panels at the Phoenix and Borrego Springs Film Festivals, Creative Screenwriting Expo, and the Willamette Writers Conference, and judged for both UCLA’s MFA Screenwriting Competition and the Nicholl Fellowship. He spent five years in Short Film Programming for the Newport Beach Film Festival and regularly consults with filmmakers on their festival submission strategies. He works as a program coordinator with the non-profit arts council Arts Orange County, managing public art searches and grant/fellowship programs.
He has volunteered for the Second Harvest Food Bank and Laura’s House, and captained a team for the Orange County Out of the Darkness Walk raising money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. He graduated 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., and is a proud member of the WGA, the Orange County Playwrights Alliance, and the O.C. Theatre Guild.
Thurkettle is available as a writer, performer, producer, director, and/or consultant for your play, podcast, or film project. For acting, his Theatrical representative is Elyah Doryon at Coast to Coast Talent Group. For other professional inquiries, contact directly at nt(at)nicholasthurkettle.com.
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Recent News
My post-apocalyptic sci-fi short film “Three Ninety Five” recently completed its film festival run with a standing-room-only screening at the Ocean City Film Festival and its online debut will be announced soon. Learn more at the film’s website 395film.com!
I’m now in post-production on a new short film, an absurdist comedy called “Pizza Time Pizza.” This was a tiny, one-day shoot, you can see the entire cast and crew above; I shot it mostly with personal gear for mostly no money, but my hope is that the comedy will allow it to punch above its budgetary weight and come together effectively enough to support a small festival run. I’m currently editing – watch for more news!
The microbudget supernatural movie The Buildout, for which I was one of the producers, recently swept the top prizes at the Oceanside Film Festival and more fest play dates are on the horizon! We’re really proud of the unique vibe and visual splendor we achieved, and the fearless performances from our leads Hannah Alline and Jenna Kanell. Stay tuned for more news of screenings!
Contact: nt(at)nicholasthurkettle.com
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