I’m a lifelong artist with a soft spot for creative troublemaking and a deep belief that the arts can stitch a frayed world back together. As a performer, live composer, visual artist, director, educator, curator, and producer, I’ve spent years exploring what happens when people create side by side; bridging disciplines, cultures, ages, identities, and lived experiences.

After seasons in NYC and Paris, I came home to Oklahoma City and founded SPARK! Creative Lab, a social practice arts organization dedicated to building connection and wellbeing through creative collaboration. My current work partners with Oklahoma Veterans, who continue to teach me what courage, truth-telling, service, and community care look like in real time.

My path has been shaped by artists and everyday people who have trusted me with their stories. It has also been shaped by my own lived experiences - growing up in a home full of creativity and complexity, carrying an ACE score of 10, learning resilience the hard way, and discovering how much can be expressed without a single word.

Everything I make, teach, or lead is rooted in one guiding question: what becomes possible when people feel safe enough to be themselves?

At the heart of it all is Love - unruly, grounding, expansive Love - the kind that invites us back to our own humanity and to one another.

LISTEN NOW: KGOU’S ON THE SCENE WITH NICOLE POOLE

PERFORMANCE

I’m a professional actor (AEA, SAG-AFTRA) and an award-winning audiobook narrator with a love for language and a taste for experimentation. Classically trained, sure—but I’m all about pushing boundaries. I’ve taken on wild, absurd projects across stages worldwide and wouldn’t have it any other way. When I’m not performing, I jump into guest artist gigs, showing up to teach acting, voice, and improv to the next wave of fearless creatives.

Notable Honors

Audie Award Finalist (2017 Romance; 2016 Paranormal; 2009 Fiction)
American Library Association (2017 Science Fiction)
Earphones Award (2019 Science Fiction & Romantic Fiction, 2014 Fiction & Science Fiction, 2010 Fiction)
Publishers Weekly (2010 Full Cast)
Independent Audiobook Association (2018 Paranormal)

SOUNPAINTING

Nicole is a blonde woman with pale skin. She wears red workers' coveralls and is making a dynamic gesture at dancers and musicians.

I’m one of a select few theater artists worldwide certified in Soundpainting—the real-time compositional sign language created by Walter Thompson. As a core member of the Walter Thompson Orchestra, a founding member of the International Feminine Poetic Cabaret Kollecti’F, and guest artist for international ensembles, I teach, perform, compose, and consult with organizations to bring out their multidisciplinary best. In 2021, I launched SPARK! Creative Lab, Oklahoma’s first Soundpainting ensemble.

CURATION

I’m the curator and caretaker of The O. Gail Poole Collection, an expansive catalog of my late father’s artwork. Through an unconventional, grassroots effort to amplify his work and message, this previously unsung, fourth-generation Oklahoman is finally stepping back into the spotlight where he belongs.