miss black nc usa

Ricki Nelson is a multi-hyphenate creative who enjoys expressing her artistic vision through film-making, writing, acting, poetry, and content creation. A proud graduate of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington’s Film Studies & Creative Writing Program, her passion for the industry led her to intern at Viola Davis and Julius Tennon’s company, JuVee Productions. At UNC-W, she founded one of the institution's first multi-medium organizations, Creative Arts Club. Ricki also earned recognition by receiving the Frank Capra Jr. Scholarship, Senior Medallion, Upperman Student Leader of the Year, and the Excellence in Film Production Award.

Ricki proudly works in the film industry. She has contributed to projects like The Summer I Turned Pretty (S1), Hightown (S3), Our Kind of People (S1), and Appendage (Hulu). Currently she serves as the full-time Executive Assistant to Tina Mabry, Director of The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat. 

As the Executive Director and Founder of Black Creative’s Social Club, Ricki is dedicated to uniting Black creatives in film and content creation. Recently, she was accepted into the first film-making cohort for the Partners In Kind "The Beat Goes On" Impact Campaign, a documentary film-making initiative co-executive produced by Martin Luther King III, Andrea Waters King, and Mario Van Peebles, who is also the director. Her  personal projects include the original web series, Acting Class, which is currently in post-production, and her video essay, I Am Not Your Black Girl, is beginning its festival run. 

Additionally, she is an author, with her work published in Press Pause Press, Rigorous Vol. 1, SeaBreeze Magazine, Black Girl Poetry Scrapbook, and Z Publishing’s North Carolina’s Emerging Writers: An Anthology of Fiction and An Anthology of Nonfiction. Her debut poetry book, When the Black Girl Smiles, is set to release in 2024.

As the reigning Miss Black North Carolina USA, Ricki’s platform, “Don’t Wait, Just Be,” empowers Black women and girls to stop waiting on external validation and instead give themselves permission to be all that they are through the three pillars - Stand Up, Be Seen, and Be Kind.