Nick Nanton is an American director and producer of film and television projects, author, and branding agency executive. He is the co-founder and CEO of DNA Films, through which he has produced and directed a number of 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 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. Additionally, Nanton is the creator and host of the Amazon Prime Video interview series, In Case You Didn't Know with Nick Nanton. He has won over 20 Emmy Awards for his work on these projects. Nanton has also written a number of books including Celebrity Branding You and Story Selling. Nanton started his career as an entertainment lawyer.
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 in the Orlando area in central Florida, where Nanton largely grew up. His first job was as a tennis instructor when he was 12 years old. He attended Lake Mary High School in Lake Mary, Florida, where he played on the school's tennis team. He graduated from high school in 1998. 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 his own recording studio (inside a friend's studio) in Gainesville where he was able to work with acts such as Stan Lynch and Sister Hazel. He also made music of his own. Nanton was a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity while at college. He graduated from the University of Florida in 2001 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) in finance. He went on to earn his J.D. from the University of Florida's Fredric G. Levin College of Law in December 2004.
Career
Early in his career, Nanton was CEO of the Cinemark Music Group. He also formed his own law firm, Dicks & Nanton, with his legal and business partner J.W. Dicks. The firm primarily focused on liability, trademark, and entertainment law. In July 2007, Nanton was elected to serve on the executive council of The Florida Bar Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Committee. 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.
Also in 2007, Nanton opted to focus on celebrity marketing, consulting, and public relations. With J.W. Dicks, he formed the Dicks and Nanton Celebrity Branding Agency in Winter Park, Florida in July 2007. 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.
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 the award in the Director (Post-Production) category at the 47th Ohio Valley Emmy Awards that year. 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. That company would later start a new division known as DNA Films.
Nanton continued authoring and contributing to books. In 2013, he published Story Selling which appeared on The Wall Street Journal Best Seller list. With J.W. Dicks, he founded a publishing company called CelebrityPress, which primarily publishes books on the topics of business and entrepreneurship. 2013 also saw Nanton receive further accolades for his film work. He won multiple Suncoast Regional Emmy Awards that year for producing and directing the documentary shorts, Esperanza and Mi Casa Hogar. In 2014, it was announced that Nanton would direct a biographical documentary about the founder of the X Prize Foundation, Peter Diamandis. The resultant film, Visioneer, garnered Nanton another Suncoast Regional Emmy Award in the Director (Post-Production) category in 2015.