Sam Nicholson, ASC, is CEO and founder of Stargate Studios, a state-of-the-art visual effects production company founded in 1989, with studios in South Pasadena, California and Vancouver, British Columbia. As Stargate's CEO, principal director and cinematographer, Sam draws from his thirty years of expertise in film, television and visual effects production to lead his company of over 125 talented artists and technicians.

A graduate of the UCLA graduate school of Fine Arts, Sam has been involved in film and television production for over thirty years. From his first experience as on-set visual effect supervisor on 'Star Trek I' and the groundbreaking 'Max Headroom', to his recent Emmy Awards for best Visual Effects for TNT's "Battlegound" and NBC's "Heroes", Sam Nicholson has led his company, Stargate Studios, to become a leader in digital imaging for high concept television and feature films.

Currently working on multiple television series, national commercials and feature films, Sam has overseen the visual effects for numerous series such as "Heroes", "24", "Grey's Anatomy", "CSI: New York", "Ugly Betty", "ER", "The Event",  "Pan Am" and "The Walking Dead". Some of his motion picture credits include supervising and producing the visual effects for feature films such as 'Ghostbusters II', 'Highlander II', 'Naked Gun 33 1/3', 40 Days and 40 Nights' and 'White Noise'.

As a cinematographer, Sam has extensive experience with most film cameras, cinematic lighting, optical printing, motion control and post production film finishing. In the digital imaging arena, Sam has shot with all emerging digital camera systems from Arriflex, Sony, Panavision, Panasonic, Weisscam, SiliconImaging, and RED, including exotic digital hybrid cameras from Lockheed, Image Research and the Fraunhofer Institute.

With his creative team at Stargate, Sam is in a unique position to not only utilize his extensive knowledge of the latest digital cameras, but he has also created a powerful, post production "digital pipeline" required to manipulate, combine, and process large amounts of digital images. Many years in development, Stargate can boast many proprietary inventions including their Visual Operating System (VOS), the "Virtual Backlot", and one of the most extensive high quality footage libraries available.

Sam Nicholson is a member of the American Society of Cinematographers, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, an IA Director of Photography, a member of the Directors Guild of America, an award-winning member of the Visual Effects Society and he serves on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Technical Awards committee.