Nicki Cortese
- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Nicki Cortese started out writing and producing comedy, recognized at the young age of 15 by one of the producers at SNL after they saw a high school comedy sketch show she wrote and starred in. This early success led her to commissions writing for Funny Or Die, College Humour and Lad Bible. She moved into blockbuster studio features when she took an opportunity to work with Academy Award winner Akiva Goldsman at Weed Road Pictures/Warner Bros. While there, Nicki developed an extensive portfolio of projects, partnering with filmmakers such as Greg Berlanti, Richard Linklater, JJ Abrams, Ron Howard, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Doug Liman, Roland Emmerich, Pete Berg and David Heyman. In addition, she was responsible for selling the first ever animation project to Warner Animation Group, developing an I Am Legend sequel with Will Smith, fostered franchises such as Paranormal Activity and for generating the Pinkerton movie for Sony, Appian Way and Leonardo DiCaprio. During this time, President Obama recognized Nicki's work twice - the first by airing a special she wrote and produced during his Town Hall and the second was by screening the series premiere of Underground at the White House.
After seven years at Weed Road she moved to Red Wagon Entertainment, headed by Academy Award winners Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher. During her time there, Nicki developed and produced the first two films of the Divergent franchise, co-created the Internet Apocalypse series with Mitch Hurwitz (Arrested Development) for Netflix, and built a slate of projects including Bewitched for ABC and The Craft for Amy Pascal and Sony.
In 2015, Jeffrey Katzenberg acquired Awesomeness with the goal of creating Awesomeness Films, and Nicki was the only producer given a first look deal at the new studio, making her the youngest woman in Hollywood to have a first look studio deal at the time. She oversaw all studio creative for both film and television as well producing, developing, and script-doctoring her slate of over thirty projects including Spontaneous (Paramount), Olive Forever (USA) and You Get Me (Netflix). Working with a diverse slate of filmmakers and talent from Bella Thorne to Shailene Woodley to Elle Fanning to Matt Shakman as well as the team behind Bojack Horseman. Nicki made the studio over $10million in profit in the first 9 months of her deal.
After seven years at Weed Road she moved to Red Wagon Entertainment, headed by Academy Award winners Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher. During her time there, Nicki developed and produced the first two films of the Divergent franchise, co-created the Internet Apocalypse series with Mitch Hurwitz (Arrested Development) for Netflix, and built a slate of projects including Bewitched for ABC and The Craft for Amy Pascal and Sony.
In 2015, Jeffrey Katzenberg acquired Awesomeness with the goal of creating Awesomeness Films, and Nicki was the only producer given a first look deal at the new studio, making her the youngest woman in Hollywood to have a first look studio deal at the time. She oversaw all studio creative for both film and television as well producing, developing, and script-doctoring her slate of over thirty projects including Spontaneous (Paramount), Olive Forever (USA) and You Get Me (Netflix). Working with a diverse slate of filmmakers and talent from Bella Thorne to Shailene Woodley to Elle Fanning to Matt Shakman as well as the team behind Bojack Horseman. Nicki made the studio over $10million in profit in the first 9 months of her deal.
