Biography

Nicole Whitaker graduated from the NYU Tisch School of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, and subsequently began her career as a still photographer. Raised by artistic parents, who helped establish the Santa Monica Museum of Art, Nicole was immersed in the fine arts from an early age, which informed her unique eye, impressive taste, and drive to create.

As she developed her love of the raw elements of light and camera, she made the transition to moving image. Over the last 20 years, Nicole has worked across all mediums, from fiction and nonfiction to television and commercials. Her collaborators include directors such as Academy Award winner Freida Mock and Academy Award nominees Brett Morgan, Jessica Sanders and Richard Robbins. Additionally, she has crafted relationships with Jason Reitman, Wayne Kramer, Marshall Herskowitz and Jeffrey Nachmanoff.

Nicole began shooting second unit on critically acclaimed feature films including Golden Globe nominated Thank You for Smoking, Running Scared, Coach Carter and Academy Award nominated The Cooler. Her first unit credits include Rhino, Followers, Chasing the Blues, Bradford Tatum's Salt, Amateur Night, American Whore, On The Doll, and Wrestling Jerusalem.

Her documentary work has garnered recognition and attention, such as her 2014 Emmy nomination for Girl Rising and 2015 Emmy nomination for Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck. In addition to her documentary and narrative work, she has also shot spots for Apple, Nike, Pepsi, Toyota, Target, Sony, and Honda, just to name a few.

Most recently, Nicole has shot episodes of Amazon's critically-acclaimed series, Patriot and the first season of Are You Sleeping?, starring Octavia Spencer, Aaron Paul and Lizzy Caplan; one of the very first series to be premiered on Apple's highly-anticipated DTC service. She is currently shooting Our Lady, LTD., the upcoming neo-noir thriller series helmed by Steve Conrad & Bruce Terris, and starring Ben Kingsley, Jimmi Simpson, Jacki Weaver, and Luis Guzmán.

1/14/2019
- IMDb mini biography by: Nicole Whitaker

Member of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) since 2022.