Kent Nicholson received his MFA from the Department of Theatre and Dance in 1995. He returned to UC Davis in 2006 to direct Death of a Salesman, which won a Writers’ Choice Award for best theatrical production on a university campus from the Sacramento News & Review. New York directing credits include: 9 Circles (The Sheen Center), Long Story Short (Prospect Theater), Five Flights (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), Wet (Summer Play Festival), and Marry Harry (NYMF, American Theater Group). Regional: Once, Amadeus, and A Light in the Piazza (South Coast Repertory), How to Write a New Book for the Bible (South Coast Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, Seattle Repertory), Cubamor (Village Theatre), Lizzie (Theater Under the Stars, Village Theater), Grey Gardens, Vincent in Brixton, Ambition Facing West, and  All My Sons (TheatreWorks), Saint Ex (Weston Playhouse), 9 Circles, The Good German, and  Jacques Brel (Marin Theater Company), Small Tragedy and Satellites(Aurora Theater Company), Kissing the Witch and Stones in His Pockets (Magic Theatre).

Nicholson has also worked as a producer on many new plays and musicals. Off-Broadway credits include Far From Heaven by Richard Greenberg, Michael Korie and Scott Frankel; Bella: An American Tall Tale by Kirsten Childs; IOWA by Jenny Schwartz and Todd Almond; and Fly By Night by Kim Rosenstock, Will Connolly, and Michael Mitnick. Regionally he produced the world premieres of Memphis by Joe DiPietro and David Bryan, Striking 12 by Groovelily, and Emma by Paul Gordon. He was Associate Artistic Director at Magic Theatre, created the New Works Initiative at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto and The Uncharted Writers Group at Ars Nova and has served on the boards of The Playwrights Foundation and The National Alliance for Musical Theatre. He currently serves as the Director of Musical Theater at Playwrights Horizons.