My name is Nicole Tay (she/they). I am a queer nonbinary woman and award-winning director based in NYC. I have two purposes in life: first, is to experience and create as much joy, love, and connection as possible in my blip of existence. And second, is to tell really f*cking good stories.  

These goals have led me down some interesting career paths. As a copywriter, I’m well acquainted with the Mad-Men-style advertising agencies of Madison Ave. Advertising taught me how to tell a story with as little as an image and a headline. Hundreds of creative briefs later, I can instantly identify the essential ingredients for setting teams up for success.

I also know well the spectacular hope and chaos of running a startup in the emerging tech industry of Web3/crypto. Crypto startups and indie film aren’t that different—scrappy dreamers fighting against the odds, countless fires and brushes with disaster; these are ruthless environments of extreme growth. While I proudly bear my battle scars, I no longer accept trauma-bonding, scarcity, and fear to comprise the soil from which I grow tender art.

The process matters just as the soil matters. As a director, my art goes beyond the story I tell on-screen; it is my commitment to the future of queer film by queering the process of how we make films.

If you too want to model softer, liberated, future ways of being, come play with me!