Jerry Nikolaev
Actor | Filmmaker
Jerry is leveraging his career to draw attention toward non-profit organizations combatting climate change, support Parkinson's research, and other non-profit endeavors. He has pledged a significant portion of his acting and filmmaking earnings to fight for these causes.
Jerry studied Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley with a specific interest in body language, microexpressions, and deception detection inspired by Dr. Paul Ekman's work. He has been in front and behind the camera since his Father was a videographer from 1992 until he could no longer physically hold a camera in 2016, and has taught Jerry much of what he knows about camera movement and framing a scene’s energy flow. Although Jerry's Feature Film debut came in 2021, Jerry has been acting for the camera since childhood; participated in Church plays/performances, took on the role of anchor and filmmaker for his high school's morning news programs, acted in small commercial roles while living in New York City.
“My inspiration must come from a place of wanting people to believe in their capabilities across all aspects of their lives. My career has a blend of everything from a corporate Tesla role to being a Child Protection Service Caseworker (I would choose the latter role over the former any day).
Nowadays, I find humans wanting to live for something greater but sadly many lack the motivation or the knowledge of what that “greater” might look like. I’m thrilled to witness a multigenerational evolution in which younger and older folks alike are embracing a perspective in which we, as humans, fit neither above nor below one another, but rather fit within — as complementary reflections of each other.
I loved being a social worker because I feel the calling to incessantly influence people to develop awareness of local, global, and complicated internal emotional issues. In fact, I still consider myself a social worker, but I now hope to be one that can reach a countless audience instead of the 15 families or so I was helping at a time.
Sincerely,
Jerry”