Nathan W. Bailey is a Los Angeles-based Art Director and Set Designer for film and television. Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, by a father who was a fine arts painter and a mother who was a photographer and film programmer, Nathan grew up around the arts. Through museum outings, film screenings, building model cars and drawing, Nathan had an artistically rich childhood.
Nathan’s formal art education began in middle school at the Waldorf School of Baltimore where the arts are integrated across the curriculum. For high school, Nathan studied at the Baltimore School for the Arts in the Theater Design and Production Program. It was there that he discovered his love and ability for narrative design. In 2007 Nathan received a BA in Film and a Minor in Political Communications from Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, while also taking architecture courses at the Boston Architectural College to further his technical design skills. Before working on his master's degree, Nathan studied briefly at the Maryland Institute College of Art in the Continuing Education Program to better his visual arts skills. Nathan then earned his MFA in Production Design from AFI Conservatory in Los Angeles, California, in 2010. His thesis film, The Strange Thing About the Johnsons, premiered at the 2011 Slamdance Film Festival and continues to stir up controversy nationwide for its artistically brave subject matter.
In 2015, Nathan was accepted into the Art Directors Guild, as an Assistant Art Director, through a portfolio review. Since gaining membership to the ADG, Nathan has worked on various notable projects including Art Directing the music video for Beyoncé's Hold Up from the Emmy nominated visual album, Lemonade. He Assistant Art Directed the sixth season of American Horror Story, the pilot episodes for S.W.A.T. and Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, and the premier episode for season 9 of Hawaii Five-0 on location in Honolulu. Other notable projects include season 2 of Westworld and the Amazon feature film, Bliss. In 2018, Nathan then earned his Set Designer's card with the ADG on the Apple TV+ show, The Morning Show. After Assistant Art Directing on HBO’s Perry Mason and Disney+’s Loki, Nathan was promoted to an Art Director position on NBC Peacock’s Mrs. Davis and FOX’s Lone Star 9-1-1, in 2022. He recently Set Designed on the Netflix film, Rustin, the box office hit, Bullet Train, and the final season of NBC’s, Magnum PI.
As an indie Production Designer, Nathan has worked on several independent features and short films, including The Bridge Partner (short), A Year and Change, 24 Seven, Shadow Witness, and The Lift (short). He has also designed commercials for clients, such as Hugo Boss, Western Digital, Movies OnDemand, MTV.com, and Arbor Mist. Additionally, he designed Yahoo!'s web-series Stunt Nation with Sal Masekela, as well as Yahoo!'s Ultimate Surprises, which was nominated for 'Best Non-Fiction or Reality Web-Series' at the 2013 Streamy Awards. Nathan also designed the first two seasons of Investigation Discovery (ID) Channel's Beauty Queen Murders, an episode of The Travel Channel's Greatest Mysteries, and a pilot for TNT entitled Murder in the Shadows. As Art Director, Nathan worked on the feature film Arcadia, which opened to a packed house at the 2012 Berlin Film Festival and took home the Crystal Bear Award for best family film.
Nathan also has a passion for teaching the art and craft of Production Design to aspiring student filmmakers and designers. He has presented at the University of Arizona and AFI Conservatory, assistant taught at the Art Center College of Design, and spent 2 years teaching Art Direction and 3D Studio, including SketchUp and Vectorworks computer design programs, at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM), in Los Angeles. Nathan's commitment to teaching extends beyond his lectures and seminars, often accepting student interns into his Art Department and helping graduating students make industry contacts.
Nathan is currently a CAD Draftsman Designer at Mattel Toy Company, living in Manhattan Beach, CA, and relearning French, from his childhood, with his girlfriend who is from Paris. In his free time you’ll find him on the golf course, watching a baseball or football game, and collecting or studying the history and design of sneakers.