Nic Kelman was born in New York City to parents from the UK and the US. Documentarian Alfred Kelman was his father. Kelman received a Bachelor of Science in Brain and Cognitive Science and a Minor in Film and Media Studies from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then received a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Brown University where he studied under a full fellowship.
Kelman's first novel, "girls: a paean," (Little, Brown and Company, 2003) was a San Francisco Chronicle and New York Journal News Best Book of the Year. It went on to become a critically acclaimed international bestseller and has been translated into more than a dozen languages. In Italy, where Fazi Editore was the publisher, it was notably successful.
Kelman's second book was published worldwide in French and English by Assouline in 2006. It was the world's first art history book on the subject of video games and was thus titled, simply, "Video Game Art."
Kelman's third book and second novel, Il Comportamento della Luce, was published in 2008 by Fazi Editore.
DreamWorks Studios purchased Kelman's original sci-fi screenplay, "Genneris," as a directing project for Steven Spielberg in 2010. Since then, Kelman has sold original screenplays to many other directors and studios including Roland Emmerich, Warner Brothers, and Paramount Pictures.
In 2015, Kelman's fourth book, the illustrated novel, "How To Pass As Human," was published by Dark Horse Books.
From August 2017 to March 2021, Kelman worked at Wizards of the Coast, most recently as Director of Entertainment Development.
As well as writing his own projects, he currently works as a freelance Narrative and IP Development Consultant.
