Biography
Since he was a child, Nicholas Zebrun knew he wanted to be a filmmaker. Raised on classic films and television, it was seeing Citizen Kane (1941) at the age of five that convinced him that he wanted to work both in front of and behind the camera. He was raised in Fort Worth, Texas and throughout his middle school and high school years won many awards for his writing and singing abilities. He graduated from Southwest High School and immediately began plans to start his own production company, which he did in 2005. He honed his craft by making the short thriller Midnight Ransom (2005) and it's explosive sequel Midday Ransom (2005) and then paired up with his production partner David Sowden to produce White Powder (2006), A Part (2008), and A Girls Night Out (2009). He also produced Block (2009), Leah (2011), Banana & Kim (2013), and The Ballad of Little Bobby Lowe (2020) with writer/director David Paul.
At the start of the 2010's, Mr. Zebrun briefly flirted with politics when he ran for Fort Worth Mayor in 2011. After that, his work branched out to include his first feature-length film Variations on a High School Romance (2010), and his multi-award winning movies Noir City (2014), Three Conversations About Two People in One Place (2015), and Requiem for a Shallow Heart (2016). He also produced the award winning short films Room 206 and the Evenings After (2012) and Henry (2018). In 2013, he started hosting the local DFW talk/variety show The Show Show (2013), which garnered critical acclaim and a devoted fan base. Towards the end of the decade, he paired with actress/composer Katreeva Phillips to write and compose musicals, including "To Catch a Predator: The Musical," "The Boy Who Cried Giant," and "Snow White and the Seven Doubts," all of which were produced in the DFW metroplex, receiving critical acclaim. He continued in the theater world, writing, directing, and acting in such Shakespearean productions as "Much Ado About Nothing," "The Merry Wives of Windsor," and "Hamlet: Prince of Denmark."
Since the 2020s, Mr. Zebrun has split his time between film and theater. For the stage, he has continued to write, direct, and produce, including arrangements of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Twelfth Night," and "Richard III." With David Sowden, he co-wrote and produced the popular multi-media stage show "SMS." He also directed "One Christmas Carol" and his adaptation of "Rope."
Mr. Zebrun's works have been noted for their kineticism, socio-political themes, and their stylized approach, reminiscent of the great screen and stage classics of the past.
23 wins and 16 nominations
