Nicholas Phillips is an entrepreneur based in Houston, Texas. He began his career as a theatrical designer and quickly climbed to the top of the field. From this base he has worked with several manufactures on the development and marketing of  products in the high performance lighting space. Ever broadening his interests, Nicholas is now the President of the new media startup CultureMap, a Founder of Dream Solutions USA, and he continues to consult on the development of products, marketing and sales, and theatrical production.

In July 2004, at just twenty-one years old, Nicholas was featured as the youngest of Lighting Dimensions Magazine’s “ten top under thirty professionals shaping the lighting industry”. His experience is extraordinary for his age and spans concert events, Broadway shows and tours, major ballet, opera, theme park extravaganzas, corporate/industrial theater, and architectural projects around the world. A self taught prodigy in theatrical lighting, scenic, and projection design, Nicholas was asked by one of the industry’s legends to mentor under him in New York while in high school.

 

 

He quickly vaulted to the top of the industry and went on to design his first world premiere for Houston Ballet at eighteen years old, his first work at The Kennedy Center at nineteen, and his first world premiere for American Ballet Theater followed at twenty-one. Nicholas’ second work for Washington Ballet, The Rite of Spring, was his career first joint lighting and scenic design and was recognized with the Metro Dance Award for excellence in stage design. For Disney Creative Entertainment he worked on the creation of their Lion King spectacular in Hong Kong and the original Finding Nemo the Musical. He has extensive experience in the Latin American market having worked with OCESA, the Mexican division of Grupo CIE the world’s largest producer of live Spanish language entertainment. As a producer himself Nicholas was a creator of the hugely successful Starbucks Mixed Media Series at Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts which has seen an audience of more than 45,000.

 

In 2004, just three years out of high school, Nicholas began to explore opportunities outside of theatrical design and production. He fostered relationships with leading manufactures in high performance lighting. It was these relationships that saw him travel the world over consulting on the design, development, and marketing of some of the most innovative products in the lighting market. In 2007 he established the nicphillips group as an umbrella entity where he could begin to focus on his interests outside of the high performance lighting space.

 

Nicholas has invested more than a year to develop a ground-breaking hyper-local web based concept called CultureMap with one of Texas’ premiere restaurateurs Lonnie Schiller. He will oversee the launch of the web site as President of the venture. Simultaneously Nicholas has founded Dream Solutions USA a new high-tech company charged with the development of promising new power and data technologies.

 

He is a frequent speaker on topics surrounding the entertainment, lighting, arts, and technology industries. His writing has been seen in several publications and he serves on advisory and directorial boards for both for-and-not-for-profit organizations including Penton Media, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Glasstire.com, Young Audiences of Houston, and the Entertainment Technology and Services Association.