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As a lifelong Angelino, "Hollywood" wasn't some mythical, far away place for Nick Cates. In fact, growing up, it wasn't uncommon for him to occasionally play youth baseball alongside the kids of celebrities.
Like many in his neighborhood, Nick's earliest dream was to blossom into an NFL or NBA star, but his elementary teachers identified and nurtured his unique penchant for writing. Eventually, while studying journalism at USC, Nick's love of story-telling took found its true form. Internships at BET and PBS introduced him to the idea of a career in television...and the young writer never looked back.
After graduating, Nick landed an associate producer position at The Movietime Channel, which later became E! Entertainment Television. Over the next several years, his facility for writing and editing elevated Nick to segment producer, and soon producer, where he led production teams creating a variety of specials.
While rising through the ranks, the young producer began to explore screenplay writing and his first feature effort, "Lush Life," earned him admission into the prestigious Disney Screenwriting Fellowship. During his 18 month sabbatical from TV production Nick penned two more promising specs, but eventually the lure of television came calling. Nick was hired as a segment producer on the Quincy Jones-produced late night variety series Vibe-TV, hosted by the comedian, Sinbad.
After that series' two-year run, Nick's colleagues at E! invited him back as a producer on the popular docuseries Mysteries & Scandals, hosted by AJ Benza, and later for the E! True Hollywood Story. Ever the writer, Nick spent his free time writing half-hour comedy scripts, and eventually was invited to participate in the Warner Television Writing Workshop, where he developed specs for several popular comedies. Meanwhile, his production skills elevated Nick to the role of supervising producer for the E! series Celebrity Homes, and later for the network's first foray into late night TV, AJ After Hours, set in a posh Manhattan loft.
Nick's versatility and ability to assemble and lead strong production teams made him a go-to-guy for special programming, allowing the producer to develop and oversee a variety of new series for E!. When E!'s parent company NBC Universal launched the new production company Wilshire Studios, the proven showrunner came on as an Executive Producer, developing series and specials for a variety of networks including A&E, Style, the Esquire Network, Investigation Discovery, and GSN, as well as E!
Always an entrepreneur, throughout his career, Nick invested in real estate and began helping other industry professionals buy and sell property as well. Wanting even more control over his career, Nick took the bold move to actually step away from full time TV production to launch the successful real estate company Showpads, with the mission to make booking in-person tours of vacant apartments as easy as ordering an Uber.
Still, producing television never took a back seat. Nick's wide-ranging tastes and experience earned him a role as a production executive with BET networks, overseeing the docuseries Home Team, which followed the personal life and career of charismatic NFL all-star Desean Jackson, as well as the network's long-running music competition series Sunday BesT.
Most recently the prolific executive developed and produced the pilot for his most innovative series yet. "The Catch" is a high-concept social experiment that recognizes the that the ubiquity of digital cameras and cell phones means most millennials and Gen Xers have easily-accessible images of themselves, practically from birth. The show's unique format asks Singles burning question: how well can you tell from a person's awkward past, how hot, successful, or compatible they will be with you today? The results are always fun and surprising.
"The Catch" is just one, in a trove of compelling, of-the-moment series and formats Nick is actively developing through his Los Angeles-based production company Mindfield Productions.
