Nick Bilton is a Los Angeles-based author, investigative journalist, screenwriter, documentarian and producer.
Known for probing the most talked-about issues of our time, Bilton specializes in creating thought-provoking nonfiction content across a multitude of mediums. He has produced Emmy Award-winning documentaries, scripted television shows, feature films, two New York Times-bestselling nonfiction books, and a Webby Award-winning podcast.
Bilton’s investigative reporting has had a major impact on policy, industry, and public accountability. His columns and features for The New York Times and Vanity Fair led to investigations by the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice, and Congress. A series of stories he wrote questioning the FAA’s arcane ban on electronics during flights led to the agency overturning its longtime prohibition on using devices during takeoff and landing. His reporting on Twitter’s deceptive user engagement metrics for a Vanity Fair exposé led to an $800 million class action settlement against the company. When Twitter attempted to compel him to testify, Bilton fought and won a First Amendment lawsuit to protect his sources.
His investigative work has been cited in congressional inquiries, federal investigations, and criminal cases, and his coverage has spanned gun control, privacy, voting, free speech online, the 2016 and 2020 elections, and the intersection of technology and democratic institutions. He has written major profiles on tech titans like Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg, and covered subjects ranging from mob bosses to politicians to dark web drug lords — including in the New York Times bestselling book American Kingpin, about the hunt for the criminal mastermind behind the Silk Road.
His television and film productions have included HBO's The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney, HBO’s Fake Famous, which Bilton produced and directed, and several other films and series for Netflix. He has written scripts and executive produced films, television shows and documentaries for Lionsgate, Amazon Studios, Warner Bros, Netflix, Disney and Universal. He is currently writing and producing a movie and book about the mob in 1970s Hawaii for Martin Scorsese, starring Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt and Leonardo DiCaprio.
