Biography

Nikki (Nikila) Cole (2026) is in production development on Ophelia, a narrative feature film based on the true story of HIV advocate Ophelia Haanyama Orum, with Ray Sager attached as Executive Producer and Virginie Lacombe (Virginie Films, Paris) as French co-producer. The project is fiscally sponsored by Creative Visions Foundation and has been selected for the Telefilm Canada Pavilion at the TIFF Market.

Nikki has established an international reputation as a writer/producer/director. She recently won the c21 Content Canada Co-Pro Pitch Competition/2025 with her series Bleep Me! at TIFF, produced in partnership with Maciej Pawelczyk at Inborn Media. Her recent project Ray of Hope, a feature documentary that she co-directed and co-wrote with Ryan Singh about the aftermath of the genocide in Sri Lanka, won its 16th award on the film festival circuit (2025) and is currently airing on CBC Gem. This documentary was selected For Consideration for the Academy Awards and was In Consideration in five categories in the Canadian Screen Awards. Her micro-short, Catherine in Love, won several awards including The Golden Elephant Trophy at the Bangkok Movie Awards, and continues on the festival circuit (Fayetteville Film Festival, September 2026).

A critically acclaimed theater director/choreographer/dancer, Nikki expanded into film, attending NYU SCE. She circled the globe with her 11-year old daughter, creating the Vision TV/PBS documentary Wanderings: A Journey to Connect, exploring unknown Jewish communities from Korea to Iceland to India. Her film, Intimacies, about Hollywood's first openly HIV+ actor, Michael Kearns, won the Audience Vote for Best Documentary at the Palm Springs Int'l Film Festival. She produced films for Vancouver's Pacific Space Centre, the King Abdulaziz Historical Centre in Saudi Arabia, and Motion Simulator Ride films including Mars and Seatrek for SimEx.

After a career writing/producing/directing over 15 factual TV series like Ice Road Truckers, Storage Wars, and A Time to Kill (Discovery), she expanded into fiction, directing The Next Step for BBC Kids, and an award-winning dramatic short, My Father, Joe (Amazon Prime). Her script for the historical fiction series Serpent Queen won Best Pilot Screenplay at the Oaxaca Film Festival, and her feature The Bride's Wedding was a Finalist in the TIFF-CBC Screenplay Competition. She was selected as one of 8 directors to shoot Catherine in Love, an award-winning short drama on a Volume Wall as part of the DGC/Pixomondo/William F. White's Virtual Production Workshop. Alongside Ophelia, she is developing Bleep Me! and Sovereign Child, the latter with development funding from CMF/CICLIC in partnership with Virginie Films.

Nikki honed her story editing/writing skills writing and editing over 15 factual TV series and has consulted on scripts on several independent productions including Rachel Feldman, given workshops for Reel World: Black Entrepreneur Program, and Women in Film Arkansas. She has written several industry articles for PVC magazine on many subjects in the film and TV industry.

She is a member of the Directors Guild of Canada, CMPA, WIFT, Alliance of Women Directors, Film Fatales, GenXX, WIF LA and Toronto, Women in Film Arkansas, and Women in the Director's Chair. Nikki has mentored for WIFT and Women in Communications and served on many juries, including the Canadian Screen Awards, Women in the Director's Chair, the DGC, the Mid-America Arts Alliance, Diversity in Cannes, and the Little Rock 48 Hour Film Competition.

As part of the Tonembee Charity, Nikki spent 15 years filming in a remote Kenyan village, while educating girls and boys and providing solar cookers to the village. She writes industry articles in the Pro Video Coalition.
- IMDb mini biography by: Nikki Cole