Recent News
The Buildout is now streaming! I was one of the producers of this eerie, lofi supernatural drama starring Hannah Aline (Doom Patrol) and Jenna Kanell (Terrifier, Renfield) and it was one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of all my years in film. After an award-winning film festival journey it is now in the hands of Ethos Releasing, who have made it available for sale or rent on Amazon and AppleTV with more platforms to follow. If desert vistas, powerhouse acting, dirt biking, cosmic strangeness, and truly independent film are your bag, come on the journey…
My newest short film “Pizza Time Pizza” has booked its film festival world premiere! The Pasadena International Film Festival previously screened my short film “R&R” and it was one of the best festival screenings I’ve ever enjoyed. For our tiny little project to have landed a festival this big is a testament to the dedication and versatility of the cast and crew. Keep an eye out for screening information and check out the film’s page here on my website for more!
Had a blast at Anime Impulse – Los Angeles at the Pomona Fairplex! It was a full-to-bursting weekend meeting some of my own V.O. heroes as well as celebrating Von Lycaon with his many fans. I’m still new to the festival circuit and learning how to navigate it and create good memories with the people I meet, but it’s a lot easier when you’re talking about a character as easy to love as our Wolfie. Watch for more announcements of conventions and fan event appearances!
Bio
Nicholas Thurkettle is most widely known as the original English voice of Von Lycaon (from release through chapter 1.3) in the smash hit videogame Zenless Zone Zero. Beyond Von Lycaon, he voices a wide variety of characters in games like Black Desert Online, Crusaders of Light, and Book of Demons; plus talking animals in the family film Toby’s Big Adventure, and the English dubs of projects like the Netflix documentary series Chef’s Table: Pastry, Russian horror-action movie The Last Vampire Princess, and the Malaysian children’s film Upin & Ipin: The Lone Gibbon Kris. He also stars in independent feature films like Moon Students, To a Dead Friend (from Sundance alumni Mike Sakamoto,) Cloudy With a Chance of Sunshine, Revelator, and Reclaiming Friendship Park. His TV debut came on the season 2 finale of Wild West Chronicles. His role in the sci-fi/horror short “Prefigured” earned him nominations for Best Supporting Actor at FilmQuest and Best Actor at the Nightmares Film Festival; it now streams on the scifi channel DUST. He is the performer behind “Alvin the Alien,” part of a collection of chatbots developed by Meta. But his roots in acting are on stage, where favorite roles include Prospero in The Tempest, Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, and Renfield in Dracula. He performed for five seasons with the outdoor summer festival Shakespeare Orange County, also serving as Artistic Associate and Casting Director, and currently leads the Modjeska Shakespeare Players.
Short films directed by him have played at 60 festivals and counting, winning awards such as Best Director, People’s Choice – Best Short Film, Best Sci-Fi Short and Best Comedy Short. His short “The Dinner Scene” is distributed by IndieFlix, and he has also directed the web series pilot “Ass in Assassin” and the music video “Sitting on the Launchpad” for the band Freefall Rescue. He is a producer of the paranormal drama feature The Buildout from writer/director Zeshaan Younus, now streaming via Ethos Releasing, and co-produced Adam Stovall’s horror-romance feature A Ghost Waits, distributed by Arrow Films and currently streaming on Shudder.
Room 9 Entertainment (Thank You For Smoking) purchased his comedy screenplay Queen Lara, which earned him membership in the Writers Guild of America; and he was hired to write the Crunchyroll anime pilot Children of Ether, which premiered on over 300 U.S. movie screens as part of Anime Movie Night. He has three books published – short story collection Stages of Sleep and the sci-fi thrillers Seeing by Moonlight and A Sickness in Time; the latter two co-written with M.F. Thomas. He also worked with Thomas as Senior Story Editor for the first 38 episodes of his podcast My Dark Path, exploring strange stories from history, science, and the paranormal.
He is a writer, producer, director, and performer with the sci-fi/fantasy/horror anthology audio drama podcast Earbud Theater. And he narrated over 100 new short stories and novellas from contemporary horror/sci-fi authors for the Parsec Award-winning Brick Moon Fiction Podcast. His plays have been produced on regional stages in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, West Virginia, Maryland, and throughout California, including at the OC-Centric New Play Festival and the Hollywood Fringe Festival. His one-act play The Rothko is represented for licensing by publisher Heartland Plays and is his first play to be produced internationally, at a festival in Taipei, Taiwan.
Thurkettle guest lectures, teaches workshops, and conducts private coaching in voice acting, storytelling, and screenwriting. He has spoken on panels at the Phoenix and Borrego Springs Film Festivals, Creative Screenwriting Expo, and the Willamette Writers Conference, and judged for both UCLA’s MFA Screenwriting Competition and the Nicholl Fellowship. He spent five years in Short Film Programming for the Newport Beach Film Festival and regularly consults with filmmakers on their festival submission strategies. He currently works as a program coordinator with the non-profit arts council Arts Orange County, managing public art searches and grant/fellowship programs.
He has volunteered for the Second Harvest Food Bank and Laura’s House, and captained a team for the Orange County Out of the Darkness Walk raising money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. He graduated Bradley University with a degree in Theatre and Music which included a semester abroad at Hull University in the U.K., and is a proud member of the WGA, the Orange County Playwrights Alliance, and the O.C. Theatre Guild.
Thurkettle’s Theatrical representative is Elyah Doryon at Coast to Coast Talent Group. For convention/fan appearances, contact Kris Jones at the booking agency CelebWorx. For any other professional inquiries, use the Contact Form below.
Subscribe to my e-newsletter for all the latest!
@NThurkettle on Bluesky, Instagram, Twitch, and TikTok