Nicole Opper
Scholar Class 2012
Nicole Opper was raised in San Diego, CA and came out at the age of 17. It didn’t take her long to realize how unique the support of her parents was. It became her greatest hope that one day all LGBTQ youth could be embraced by their families and communities, and so she is committed to doing her part to achieve this through her work as a filmmaker and an educator. Nicole’s work to date includes the Emmy‐nominated 2010 feature documentary “Off and Running” which won ten international awards and aired on the national PBS series, P.O.V. The film tells the story of a teenage African American adoptee, being raised by two Jewish lesbians, who goes on a search for her roots. According to Out Magazine, the film “brilliantly redefines the concept of the American family.” Nicole has continued to explore alternative and queer family structures, and to train her camera on young people making sense of themselves in a world where racial and sexual identities are increasingly fluid. Her hope is to expand to narrative storytelling while in graduate school, further explore the notion of family and identity, as well as to present nuanced and challenging portraits of our community to a wide audience.