BIOGRAPHY
Nick DeRuve is most known for his feature films “THE RUNAWAY”, “DR. THOMPSON”, “SCHENECTADY, NEW YORK”, and docu-series, “THE CONVERSATION”
Nick DeRuve is an award-winning Writer, Producer, Director born and raised in Schenectady, New York. Raised in the inner-city, in a broken home, with many learning disabilities, DeRuve didn’t learn to read until the age of sixteen, but the language of cinema and storytelling came naturally to him. While his older step-siblings were high school dropouts, Nick’s mother moved the family to the suburbs of Niskayuna in search of better education and support. He began making films in high school where his short film “GERMAPHOBE” garnered national attention winning the Reel Teens Fest Filmmaker of the Year award. He was also awarded the Susan E. Sheppard Memorial Artist Award, which is selectively given to the most well rounded art student in the capital district. Nick went on to receive his BFA and MFA in Film. Nick graduated at the top of his class with a near perfect GPA, and continued working professionally in the entertainment industry.
“SCHENECTADY, NEW YORK” was an Official Selection at eight film festivals including the NYC International Film Festival where it was the opening night gala presentation and on to win the Award of Excellence at the Best Shorts Competition. “DR. THOMPSON” was an Official Selection at seven film festivals and made its world premiere at the Burbank International Film Festival where it was awarded Best Student Film. In 2015 and 2016, “THE RUNAWAY” was an Official Selection of eighteen film festivals in five countries winning sixteen award laurels. After twelve full months on the festival circuit, the film was acquired for distribution and made available on a half dozen platforms including Amazon Prime.
In 2018 he made the feature length documentary “THE 99%”, which made its world premiere at the Orlando
Film Festival. In 2020, he produced and directed the documentary series,“THE CONVERSATION”, his second social justice campaign opposing racism and police brutality, which was acquired for distribution.
With Nick's burning passion for social justice, equality, and inclusion, paired with his experience growing up in the inner-city where he attained first hand experience of how crime and prison impacts family life, crime drama is a familiar genre to him inspiring this screenplay, “ESCPAE FROM VIRTUE”, which has received a ‘RECOMMEND’ rating from The Black List, and won five screenplay competitions, with impressive reviews from The Script Lab, and Indie Film Hustle. He has a variety of spec scripts that have won competitions worldwide including the Beverly Hills Film Festival, the Hollywood Screenplay Contest, the LA Film Awards, as well as landing at #27 of The Black List’s active top list.