ABOUT NAYS
Independent Filmmaker
A graduate of Australia’s national film school AFTRS, Nays has since carved out a 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 inaugral Explorer’s Achievement Award at the Anchorage International Film Festival. As of 2025, it remains IMDb’s highest rated diving documentary feature film of all time.
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 works full-time as the Head of Digital Media at Future Secure AI, and part time as the Creative Director of Running Cloud Productions.
Underwater Creative
Inspired by The Blue Planet as a child, Nays has specialised in both underwater cinematography and photography since he was 18 years old, and is also renowned as an underwater director/producer.
His work has been showcased by both premier diving brands (Scuba Diver Magazine, Shearwater, Molchanovs, Cressi, TUSA, Adreno) and high-end companies (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.
He is a PADI-certified Freediving Instructor, Master Scuba Diver and Rescue Diver, and frequently uses Sony Alpha and FX cinema cameras for film and photography projects. Nays can dive to over 40m both with and without tanks and specialises in filming divers, big animals, and actors within all genres and locations. He is certified on the JJ-CCR for extended rebreather dives into caves, wrecks, deep walls and other environments inaccessible to recreational divers.
Nays is a Fellow of The Explorers Club, and his past clients as a writer include InDepth Magazine, Shearwater, Molchanovs, Penetrator Fins, The Freedive Cafe and SanDisk.
Selected Clients
