“The world you enter isn’t just seen - it’s felt. Every gesture, sound, and choice invites you to become part of the story.”
Nicole McDonald is an award-winning creative and immersive storyteller whose work spans narrative, technology, and design. With a foundation in games, interactive media, film, and advertising, she crafts emotionally resonant experiences that move seamlessly across mediums - from XR and digital platforms to 2D flaties, performance, and spatial installations. She leads multidisciplinary teams, bringing creative vision, strategic clarity, and technical fluency to ambitious projects that scale globally while remaining deeply human.
Nicole began her career at the trailblazing Looking Glass Studios, where she worked as a game designer and 3D modeler, co-developing tools with NASA to transform satellite data into cinematic environments. That early fusion of narrative, systems thinking, and technology continues to shape her creative philosophy: stories must evolve with their medium and meet audiences where they are - emotionally, experientially, and culturally.
Across agencies and direct client engagements, Nicole has delivered integrated campaigns and brand experiences for Disney, Corona, Microsoft, among many others. She is known for fostering high-performing teams, aligning strategies with business goals, and navigating complex, multi-stakeholder projects with clarity, integrity, and joy.
Alongside commercial work, Nicole develops independent immersive narratives and interactive projects, exploring how story, sound, interaction, and emotion merge into participatory worlds. Projects include Petite Sensations of Joy, a mixed-reality, multi-sensory exhibition grounded in neuroscience, HUE, an interactive story about empathy and human connection, and Little Wonder, a spatial-computing experiment for Magic Leap that explored dynamic narrative interactions through head tracking, positional audio, gesture recognition, and immersive physics. These works function as creative experimentation - inviting audiences to co-author stories through presence, voice, and gesture.
Nicole’s work has premiered at the Venice Biennale, Sundance, and Cannes, and she has been recognized as Disney StudioLAB’s first Artist in Residence, a fellow at ONX Studio and the Biennale College Cinema, and a Cosm XLabs Grant recipient. She is an active voice on the future of creative technology, including the role of AI in storytelling, speaking at SXSW, Google Sandbox, and Digital Design Days. Her work has earned awards from Cannes Lions, The One Show, Webbys, Clios, AICP, D&AD, and more.
At the heart of all her work is a dedication to craft, curiosity, and wonder - building living storyworlds and brand experiences that resonate, connect, and thrive across their intended mediums.
“When I see a really good piece of creative in the world, I always think about the individuals who tirelessly protected it in it’s initial stages, huddled around it like rugby players, forcefully nudging out the obstacles, moving it through the production process until it was ‘born’ - this truly invigorates me… and I quietly high-five them in my mind.”
I've been more than fortunate to work with an amazing group of people, who have enhanced my work and projects in immeasurable ways. You should check them all out and work and play and grow and laugh together - as they are all not only beyond talented, they are pure joy to work with.
KC AUSTIN is a ridiculously talented creative developer with a meticulous eye.
ROB AUTEN is the man behind Hexagram, generous, smart and delightful.
JASMINE ALBUQUERQUE is a seriously creative choreographer and dancer.
CANDICE BIRNS is THE hair stylist that you want to work with (never mind that you'll fall madly in love with her).
MATTIA CASALEGNO is an incredible immersive artist and brilliant mind.
HEATHER CVAR is a highly talented make-up artist (and is totally in it to win it).
AMY JO DIAZ is a mulit-talented art director and artist (she makes things happen above and beyond).
ANITA FONTAINE is a delightful and masterful creative mind with crazy interactive chops.
RYAN HEFFINGTON is a force of nature in dance and the art community.
JESSICA HUNDLEY is an amazing creative force (a writer, a filmmaker, a doer).
NICOLAS JODOIN is a music producer and will make your projects sing and swoon.
STEVIE LAUX is an amazing creative mind (creative direction, art direction, editor, you name it).
EDMUND LIANG is a concept artist you can’t do without.
JULIA MARKIEWICZ is a writer and ACD, she also is a dream collaborator.
DAVID MCFARLAND is an amazing Director of Photography whose knowledge is endless and willingness is humbling.
ANDREW MCDONALD is a mastermind of creativity, an amazing artist his storytelling fortifies everything he works on.
AMANDA MILLER is an incredible Producer, EP and overall badass.
GUILLAUME RAFFI is the bestest executive producer and human.
TANYA LEAL SOTO one of the smartest, most lovely executive producers in the industry.
DAN VISLOCKY is not only a mad talented animation genius but one of the best collaborators I’ve ever worked with.