Biography

Nicole Sylvester is an award-winning Brooklyn-based filmmaker. Maya & Her Lover is her debut feature film as writer/director. The film is about a woman who, stifled by complicated memories of her overbearing father and on the verge of becoming a recluse, begins a sexual relationship with a much younger man whose dark side impedes his own journey as he navigates his way as a Black man in America.

Maya & Her Lover has played at several film festivals including American Black Film Festival, where it was nominated for ''Best Feature Film'' and "Best Director", Harlem International Film Festival, where it won "Best Feature", Detroit Trinity International Film Festival winning "Best Feature", Black Harvest Film Festival, Pan African Film Festival and Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival.

Nicole has been a director all her life - her family has always called her bossy - but her professional career began as a producer/director at a local cable company in Detroit. There she was able to hone her skills culminating in a national Cable ACE nomination and a local Cable ICE Award win.

Nicole transitioned from cable to the greener pastures of film production by directing the short films The Stop and minor blues. The success of these films helped establish her as a burgeoning filmmaker on Detroit's independent filmmaking scene. She has been a panelist at several film festivals and film related events. She is a former board member of the Detroit Film Center where she also taught filmmaking workshops and is the recipient of three Public Benefit Corporation grants for film productions.

Nicole's other credits include writer/director on the collaborative feature film The Owner, where she joined forces with 25 filmmakers from 13 countries to produce/direct the first international feature film of its kind. The film was screened to packed theaters around the world and landed the 25 filmmakers in the Guinness World Records for "Most Directors on an International Film."

She has also produced several projects including the feature films Blood Bound and Cargo. Shot entirely in the Bahamas, Cargo has played at numerous film festivals winning several awards including Best Diaspora Film at the Silicon Valley African Film Festival, Best Film at the Haiti International Film Festival and winning the Amnesty International Human Rights Prize for film.

Her experience also includes work on studio productions such as Venom 2 (Sony Pictures), Power (Starz) and Harlem (Amazon Studios) where she was the production coordinator and as a Distribution Coordinator for Jeff Daniels' company Purple Rose Films.

Nicole is a member of New York Women in Film & TV, Women Independent Producers, Film Fatales and an IATSE Local 161. Ever versatile, Nicole has developed several television and feature film projects. Maya & Her Lover was released in 2021 by 1091 Pictures.
- IMDb mini biography by: Nicole Sylvester