ABOUT NAYS
Independent Filmmaker
A graduate of Australia’s national film school AFTRS, Nays has since carved out a formidable career as an independent filmmaker, with an intensive focus in the non-fiction sector.
In 2020, Nays’ feature film debut, Descent, won the Best Australian Documentary award at the Oscar-qualifying Sydney Film Festival. The film has also screened at Hot Docs, Raindance and the International Ocean Film Festival and is now streaming on Amazon Prime ANZ. In 2021, Descent received development funding from Screen Australia. His second feature, Diving Into The Darkness, won the Best Documentary Award at the Oscar-qualifying Santa Barbara International Film Festival, as well as the inaugural Explorer’s Achievement Award at the Anchorage International Film Festival. The film is now available worldwide on Apple TV, Amazon and Google Play, and was heralded by Scuba Diver Magazine as “one of the best documentaries focused on diving”.
Prior to his long-form career, Nays’ student short films won more than 20 awards from various international film festivals, including the Calgary International Film Festival, FlickerFest and the Robin Anderson Film Awards. He also holds experience in corporate videography and has shot and edited content for dozens of businesses and corporations, including Telstra, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Deloitte, and High Resolves. Nays currently serves full-time as the Head of the Design Studio at Future Secure AI.
Underwater Creative
Inspired by The Blue Planet as a child, Nays has pursued the unorthodox career pathway of an underwater creative since he was 18 years old, deeply diving into photography, cinematography, directing, producing and writing as part of this process.
His work has been showcased by both premier diving brands (Fourth Element, Scuba Diver Magazine, Shearwater, Molchanovs, Cressi, TUSA, Adreno) and high-end companies (Amazon, Apple, Rolex, Sony Alpha, SBS, Tourism Australia, Channel 9 News). In 2021, Nays was among the Top 30 finalists of the Australasian Top Emerging Photographer competition in the Portfolio and Animal categories, and in 2025, was the recipient of the OzTek Media Excellence Award.
In addition to being a PADI-certified Freediving Instructor and Master Scuba Diver, Nays is an avid technical diver and advocate for closed circuit rebreathers. He holds multiple certifications in cave and technical diving from TDI, GUE, RAID and CDAA, and has dived with dozens of shark species, including great whites, tigers, bulls, oceanic whitetips, hammerheads, threshers, sevengills, and whale sharks.
He is a Fellow of The Explorers Club, and his past clients as a dive writer include InDepth Magazine, Shearwater, Molchanovs, Penetrator Fins, The Freedive Cafe and SanDisk.
Other ventures
Public speaking
Nays is available for corporate and public speaking arrangements worldwide. He has been a featured speaker at several dive conferences, shows and festivals within the Southern Hemisphere, including OzTek, the GoDiving Show, Deep Week, and Manta Tech Weekend. Nays also has experience speaking on film festival panels within the US, Canada and Australia, and regularly speaks at his alma maters to younger audiences.
Music
Nays has regularly practiced music for over 20 years, and is equally comfortable in the studio as he is on stage. He has played in a wide variety of ensembles, including jazz bands, rock bands, orchestras and others, and has served as a composer, bassist, guitarist, pianist and producer. His favourite instruments to play are the bass guitar, flamenco guitar and piano, and he has privately taught students on all three. Nays co-produced and co-composed the soundtracks to the award-winning documentary films Descent and Diving Into Darkness with his longtime composing partner Kailesh Reitmans, while his previous solo ventures as a composer for short films have been featured on national television stations in Germany, Japan, Australia and the USA.
Writing
Nays is currently authoring several books, including a children’s book, a cookbook, an underwater photography picture book, and a filmmaking encyclopaedia based off his experiences in the documentary film industry. Prior to this venture, Nays has written content for several publications and media outlets, including SanDisk, InDepth Magazine, Scuba Diver Magazine, Shearwater, Molchanovs, the Freedive Cafe and Penetrator Fins.
Design
Nays’ graphic design career initially started as a hobby, designing home movie posters and jazz music albums, before he worked as a part-time designer for High Resolves and Alchemy Growth Partners, as well as his own production company, Running Cloud Productions. In 2024, Nays signed on as the Head of Design Studio for Future Secure AI, with specialisation in the Microsoft, Apple and Canva suites, along with a breadth of generative tools that have been instrumental in the company’s growth. Nays’ full design portfolio can viewed on request.
Selected Clients
