Biography

Nicholas Payne Santos is a filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. He was born and raised on Cape Cod, Massachusetts and is bi-racial (Black/white). Santos received his Film MFA from Columbia University School of the Arts in 2019. He attended Ithaca College, where he graduated in 2010 with a B.S. in Cinema & Photography.

Nicholas' feature directorial debut IT CUTS DEEP was released by Dark Sky Films in limited theatrical and VOD on Friday the 13th, November 2020. The film is streaming on Showtime and Shudder. It made its World Premiere at Nightstream, a partnership between the Boston Underground, Overlook, Brooklyn Horror, Popcorn Frights and North Bend film festivals, and its International Premiere at Grimmfest in the UK in the fall of 2020.

The feature UNCLE PECKERHEAD, produced by Nicholas, was released on VOD and Blu-ray in August 2020 by Epic Pictures / Dread Presents and is now streaming on Amazon Prime. The film sits at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Santos' supernatural horror project STRANGE CREATURES was selected for the 2021 Frontieres Market, organized by the Fantasia International Film Festival in collaboration with Marché du Film - Festival de Cannes. When a young woman receives a call from her missing brother she travels to the site of his disappearance only to find herself face to face with unspeakable evil.

Nicholas' screenplay YOU KILL ME was selected for Columbia University's 2021 Blue List in partnership with The Black List. The feature is a dark comedy about a marriage that unravels after the husband witnesses his wife kill a man in self-defense.

Santos' 2017/18 short films MOTHER F**KER and HOLIDAY FEAR were both picked up for streaming on Arrow Player in 2021. "So settle in, gird your loins and be prepared to ask yourselves: "Could I?" and "Would I?" as Nicholas Santos's immaculate, uncomfortable and unforgettable short films ask the tough questions and put their characters through the grinder and into a hard place. Nicholas curated a list of Selects from the Arrow library to pair with the shorts so sit back, relax and enjoy the scares, jokes and depravity.

Nicholas produced the supernatural horror feature THE WOUND WOOD in the fall of 2021 which is currently in post-production. An arborist and her son take a job at a once grand estate and are haunted by sinister woodland spirits, connecting them to a horrific secret from the past.

In the Spring of 2022, Santos produced the horror/thriller feature BURY ME WHEN I'M DEAD which is also in post-production. After failing to keep his wife's dying wish, a series of tragic events leads Henry to believe she's returned to get revenge.
- IMDb mini biography by: Nicholas Santos