Tim Blake Nelson
Tim Blake Nelson has established himself as a highly respected actor, writer, and director with an array of dramatic and comedic work both on screen and stage.
Previously, Nelson wrote, directed and produced Leaves of Grass, a dark comedy with Edward Norton, Keri Russell, Susan Sarandon, Richard Dreyfuss, and Nelson. The film premiered at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival, and was released theatrically by Millenium in August, 2010.
In October 2002, Lionsgate released Nelson's third film as a writer/director, The Grey Zone, based on his award winning play. It is the dramatic story of the Sonderkommandos, a special squad of Jews who processed corpses in the crematoria at Birkenau. Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, and Mira Sorvino starred in the film, which premiered at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. The National Board of Review honored the film with its "Freedom of Expression” award in 2002.
In 2001, Nelson directed O, a contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello, which starred Martin Sheen, Julia Stiles, and Josh Hartnett, and won the award for Best Director at the 2001 Seattle Film Festival before being released widely by Lionsgate that same year.
In 1997, Nelson made his directorial debut with the film Eye of God, which he also wrote. The film appeared in competition at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, and was released theatrically the same year. It won the top award at the 1997 Seattle Film Festival, as well as the Tokyo Bronze Prize at the '97 Tokyo Film Festival.
Nelson has acted in over 50 feature films, and has worked with some of Hollywood’s greatest filmmakers, including Terrence Malick in The Thin Red Line; Steven Speilberg in Lincoln (with Daniel Day Lewis) and Minority Report (opposite Tom Cruise); Mike Newell in Donnie Brasco; David Frankel in The Big Year (with Owen Wilson and Steve Martin); Steve Gagan in Syriana; Miguel Arteta in The Good Girl,and the Coen brothers in O Brother Where Art Thou?. Other films include James Franco’s adaptations of The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Bukowski, and Child of God, Andy Davis's Holes (opposite Shia LeBeouf, John Voight and Sigourney Weaver), Tommy Lee Jones’s The Homesman, Kill the Messenger (with Jeremy Renner), The Incredible Hulk (with Edward Norton), and Meet the Fockers (opposite Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, and Robert DeNiro). This year, Nelson can be seen in the highly anticipated Fantastic Four for Fox, directed by Josh Trank, co-starring Kate Mara, Miles Teller, Jamie Bell and Michael B. Jordan.
Tim has also acted extensively in New York theatre in plays including “The Beard of Avon”, “Mad Forest”, “Oedipus”, “Troilus and Cressida”, “Richard III”, and “Twelfth Night”, among many others.
His playwriting credits include “The Grey Zone”, which won him Newsday's Oppenheimer Prize as well as Encore Magazine's “Taking Off” Award, “Eye of God”, and “Anadarko.”
