Nick Nanton is an American author and director and producer of film and television projects. He is the co-founder and CEO of the production company DNA Films, has produced and directed documentary films including Dickie V, Operation Toussaint, Rudy Ruettiger: The Walk On, Visioneer, and A New Leash on Life: The K9s for Warriors Story. He is also the former CEO of the Dicks + Nanton Agency, a celebrity branding agency that he co-founded with his business partner J.W. Dicks in Winter Park, Florida.
He is the host of the Amazon Prime Video interview series, In Case You Didn't Know with Nick Nanton. He has won 24 Emmy Awards, in multiple regions across the United States, and received national and regional Emmy nominations for his work in film and television. He is the author of multiple books including Celebrity Branding You and Story Selling.
Early life and education
Nanton was born in Barbados and immigrated to the United States with his family when he was one year old. His father opened a furniture store[1] in the Orlando area in central Florida, where Nanton largely grew up.[2][3] His first job was as a tennis instructor when he was 12 years old.[1] He attended Lake Mary High School in Lake Mary, Florida, where he played on the school's varsity tennis team and served as student body president. He graduated from high school in 1998.[4] In his late teens, Nanton became interested in songwriting and music production. By the time he was a college student at the University of Florida, he had a recording studio in Gainesville where he was able to work with acts such as Stan Lynch[1] and Sister Hazel.[5] He also made music of his own.[1] Nanton was a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity while at college. He graduated from the University of Florida in 2001[6] with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) in finance.[7] He went on to earn his J.D. from the University of Florida's Fredric G. Levin College of Law in December 2004.[8]
Career
Nanton began his career as an entertainment lawyer. He is a member of The Florida Bar. Early in his career, Nanton was CEO of the Cinemark Music Group before he cofounded his law firm Dicks & Nanton with his business partner J. W. Dicks. The firm primarily focused on liability, trademark, and entertainment law.[8][9]
In July 2007, Nanton was elected to serve on the executive council of The Florida Bar Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Committee.[10] That year, he was also voted "Best of the Bar 2007" by his peers as published by the Orlando Business Journal, and he became a member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences with a vote in the Grammy Awards.[11] In the same year, Nanton began to focus on celebrity marketing, consulting, and public relations. With J.W. Dicks, he formed the Dicks and Nanton Celebrity Branding Agency[1] in Winter Park, Florida[12] in July 2007.[13] Nanton also began serving as the agency's CEO at that time. In 2008, he co-wrote (with Dicks) his first book, Celebrity Branding You. The following year, he began contributing content to compilation books starting with Big Ideas for Your Business.[14]
In 2010, the Dicks Nanton Agency branched into documentary film production. Nanton produced and co-directed the documentary short, Jacob's Turn. Nanton was honored with an Emmy award in the Director (Post-Production) category at the 47th Ohio Valley Emmy Awards that year.[15] In the following years, Nanton continued producing and directing films. Films were produced as part of the CelebrityFilms production company started by Dicks and Nanton.[16] That company would later start a new division known as DNA Films.[17][12][18]
Nick Nanton and family in 2022 receiving a star on the Las Vegas Walk of Stars.
Nanton continued authoring and contributing to books. In 2013, he published Story Selling which appeared on The Wall Street Journal Best Seller list.[12] With J.W. Dicks, he founded a publishing company called CelebrityPress, which primarily publishes books on the topics of business and entrepreneurship.[19] He directed and was executive producer of the documentary Mi Casa Hogar about the Casa Hogar children's home in Acapulco, Mexico. Nanton won multiple Suncoast Regional Emmy Awards in 2013 for producing and directing the documentary shorts, Esperanza and Mi Casa Hogar.[20] In 2014, it was announced that Nanton would direct a biographical documentary about the founder of the X Prize Foundation, Peter Diamandis.[21] The resultant film, Visioneer, garnered Nanton another Suncoast Regional Emmy Award in the Director (Post-Production) category in 2015.[22]
In the following years, Nanton produced and directed a number of other biographical documentaries, including Maximum Achievement: The Brian Tracy Story (2017),[23]The Soul of Success: The Jack Canfield Story (2017),[24]Rudy Ruettiger: The Walk On (2018),[25] and Game Changer: The Dan Sullivan Story (2018), among others.[26] In 2018, he won six Suncoast Regional Emmy Awards for producing and directing Rudy Ruettiger, Game Changer, and A New Leash on Life: The K9s for Warriors Story.[17][27] The Ruettiger film was adapted into a one-man show called Dream Big: Rudy Ruettiger Live on Broadway which Nanton produced and directed. The sold out one-night performance marked his Broadway directorial debut and was staged at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre in February 2019.[28]
Also in 2018, Nanton's Prime Video interview series, In Case You Didn't Know with Nick Nanton, premiered and has since featured guests such as Larry King, Dean Kamen, and Anthony Scaramucci.[12] That year, Nanton also directed the documentary, Operation Toussaint, which chronicled the efforts of Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.) to retrieve child trafficking victims in Haiti.[29] This film garnered a national News and Documentary nomination. A 2019 follow-up to that film, Triple Take, followed the eponymous Operation Triple Take undertaken by O.U.R. in Colombia.[30]Triple Take was the basis for the feature film Sound of Freedom.[31] He also won for From Shelter to Service: A K9s for Warriors Story.[32]
In 2020, two episodes ("Nido Qubein: Extraordinary is a Choice" and "Lisa Nichols: Born to Win") from his Prime Video series won Emmy Awards as individual documentaries.[33] He also directed the documentary, Folds of Honor, that year which details the charitable efforts of the non-profit organization of the same name.[34] Also in 2020, he directed and produced It's Happening Right Here, a documentary about survivors of sex trafficking.[35] The following year he directed Hero, a documentary film featuring UFC hall of Fame fighter Dominick Cruz, singer and advocate Mandy Harvey, world record holder Laura Penhaul, and actor and producer Remi Adeleke.[36]
Nanton was honored with a star on the Las Vegas Walk of Stars in 2022.[37] He also directed the film Dickie V, covering the life and career of Dick Vitale, which premiered on ESPN+ and Disney + the same year.[38] In 2022, he directed and produced Tactical Empathy, a documentary about FBI hostage negotiator and author of the New York Times Best-Selling Book Never Split the Difference,Chris Voss.[39] In 2024, he began filming a documentary about artist and conservationist Guy Harvey.[40] He also directed the Broadway show When My Soul Speaks: Lisa Nichols Live the same year.[41]
In 2024, Nanton directed the documentary Brisa, about Brisa De Angulo Losada.[42][43] The film received a Silver Telly Award in May 2025 and was shortlisted for the International Documentary Awards that same year.[44][45]
In 2024, he co-founded The Difference Business Bourbon, a bourbon whiskey brand with Chris Voss and Roy Milner.
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