Nolan Williams, Jr. is a creative force and the founding CEO of NEWorks Productions, a premier producer of socially impactful arts and entertainment since 2003. A true multi-hyphenate—award-winning producer, composer/lyricist, music director, playwright, filmmaker, musicologist, and cultural curator—Williams has dedicated his career to illuminating civil rights, social justice, and cultural identity through the arts.
In the film and media space, Williams is the producer/director of the award-winning documentary Becoming Douglass Commonwealth and has created a series of film shorts—including the star-studded I Have A Right To Vote and the internationally acclaimed Rise Up & Fight—which have collectively reached millions worldwide and earned more than 100 honors, among them the 2025 Cannes Film Awards Prize for “Best Director, Animation Music Video.” In the theatrical world, he is best known as the producer/creator of GRACE, the celebrated new musical that won eleven BroadwayWorld Washington, DC awards in 2022, including “Best Musical.”
As an American composer, Williams has written works performed by leading U.S. orchestras and ensembles, as well as the London Symphony Orchestra; scored soundtracks for television; and contributed to two Grammy-nominated projects. His creative versatility has been affirmed by The Washington Post’s Peter Marks, who observed that Williams “is able to compose convincingly in every popular genre.” Notably, his arrangement of We Shall Overcome was performed at the unveiling of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and later made history when it was carried aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft on its first test flight in 2014. In 2018, Major League Baseball commissioned him to create an a cappella choral setting of the National Anthem, premiered at the MLB All-Star Game. Williams has also co-edited two hymnals, including the landmark African American Heritage Hymnal, which has sold more than half a million copies worldwide.
Williams has developed arts programming in collaboration with the Kennedy Center, the Mann Center (Philadelphia), Fulton County Arts & Culture, the Franklin Institute (Philadelphia), the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and the Dr. Phillips Center (Orlando). He has also spearheaded arts initiatives with the Smithsonian, the U.S. State Department, and various international embassies. As a curator, his major exhibits include DC Home Rule 50 (2023–2025, DC History Center), West Side/South Side (2018, Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation Gallery/NYU-Washington, DC campus, Beauchamp C. Carr Gallery in Atlanta's Woodruff Arts Center, and 2nd Floor West Gallery in the Free Library of Philadelphia Parkway Central Branch), and Freedom (2002), which toured nationally for five years with stops at the Essence Music Festival, NAACP Image Awards, and more.
He has worked with an extraordinary roster of artists, among them Aretha Franklin, Audra McDonald, Billy Porter, Bobby McFerrin, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Carole King, Chaka Khan, Christopher Jackson, Denyce Graves, Dionne Warwick, Ebony JoAnn, Esperanza Spalding, Gladys Knight, Hill Harper, India.Arie, Jordin Sparks, Lenny Kravitz, Leslie Odom, Jr., Louis Gossett, Jr., Natalie Cole, Norman Lear, Patti LaBelle, Raul Esparza, Smokie Robinson, Taye Diggs, Vanessa Williams, and Yolanda Adams.
A graduate of Oberlin College (BA, Music) and Howard University (MDiv), Williams was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree by Richmond Virginia Seminary in 2013. His numerous honors include the Kennedy Center's National Performing Arts Committee’s 2019 Arts Advocacy Award, the 2023 CAAPA Legacy Award, and the 2024 Living Legends Award for Service to Humanity, alongside dozens of national and international prizes for his projects. In 2024, Oberlin recognized him as one of 21 trailblazing Black alumni.
Based in Washington, DC, Williams serves on the Howard University Board of Visitors, supporting the School of Divinity. He previously held two leadership roles at the Kennedy Center—as its inaugural Social Practice Resident (2019–2024) and as chair of the Community Advisory Board, serving with distinction from 2010 to 2025.
