Peter Nicks is an Emmy Award-winning cinematographer, producer, and director known for his trilogy of cinema vérité films set in Oakland, CA. His critically acclaimed feature documentary The Waiting Room won an Independent Spirit Award and was shortlisted for an Academy Award in 2012. The Force – the second in the trilogy of timely, immersive documentaries exploring the interconnected narratives of health care, criminal justice, and education – won the 2017 Sundance Directing Prize. Homeroom, the final film in the trilogy, won the inaugural Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.

Nicks co-founded Proximity Media with fellow Oakland-based filmmaker Ryan Coogler and oversees the nonfiction division. He is the recipient of the SFFS/KRF screenwriting grant as well as a United States Artists Fellow. He received his B.A. in English from Howard University and his master’s in journalism from UC Berkeley. He lives with his family in the San Francisco Bay Area.