“从小到大，我非常非常喜欢看电视节目，”尼娜·洛佩兹-科拉多说. “Like, it was always my thing. I loved the length of the narrative... Back then it was 24 episodes per season, so I spent 24 hours a season with these characters, I felt very emotionally attached to them. 所以当我决定去电影学院的时候，我想做电视.”

这位毕业于Full Sail的名人堂成员实现了自己的梦想:她曾在《菠菜台子大全》等节目中担任制片导演和客座导演 The Mentalist, Supernatural, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., A Million Little Things, and HBO’s Perry Mason and The Nevers. 她还准备执导HBO的艾美奖热门剧集， The Last of Us. 尼娜将她目前的成功归功于努力工作、导师的支持和一点运气.

尼娜在一个移动房屋中长大，“实际上是在轨道的另一边”.“她的家人支持她的创造力和对电视的热爱. 到了上大学的时候，尼娜和妈妈一起参观了Full Sail，并爱上了这个校园.

During her time studying film and television, 她通过制作同学的电影项目，尽可能多地从导师那里学习，拓展了自己的创意翅膀. 毕业后的第二天，尼娜和她最亲密的朋友一起搬到了好莱坞. 在洛杉矶的第一年，她和七个室友住在一起，面试制作助理的工作. 尼娜最终被聘为制片导演克里斯·朗的助理. She was assisting him on FX’s Dirt 机缘巧合:2007年美国编剧协会的罢工给了妮娜新的拍摄机会.

“当编剧们罢工时，显然所有的制片人都离开了，走上了警戒线. 克里斯基本上是最后一个站着的人，而我作为一个绿色助理被扔进了火里,” Nina remembers.

“每当克里斯导演的时候，我的任务就是保持制作的进行，”她继续说道. “所以我开始参加所有的部门会议，参加所有的(场地)侦察, I was in post with the editors working on the cuts, and while I was working on cuts, we were finding all the pieces that we were missing, whether it was a drive-by or an insert or whatever it was.”

尼娜愿意投入到制作任务中，付出额外的努力，这得到了回报. When Chris was tapped to work on a new show called The Mentalist, he asked Nina to come with him. The show was life-changing for Nina; she says that it was her “grad school.”

“I got to learn television from the bottom up [on The Mentalist]. 我在7年的时间里做了150多集……每当我们的一天结束，我完成了我作为克里斯助理需要做的事情, 我会去片场，坐在导演后面，沉浸在一切中. 这对我来说意义重大，因为我学会了什么不该做，什么该做. 我看到导演是如何与演员互动的，他们是如何与工作人员互动的，”她说.

从剪辑到调色，再到检查每一集的最终混音，Nina包揽了一切 The Mentalist. By season four she was a producer, and in season seven she directed her first episode of television, “Byzantium.”

在参加节目期间，尼娜还执导了一部短片，并被华纳兄弟公司录取. Television Directors’ Workshop. She went on to guest direct several episodes of Supernatural – she was one of the first women to direct an episode of the show, 她是第一个被邀请回来执导多集的女导演. From there, Nina directed episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., became a producing director for ABC’s A Million Little Things, and directed episodes of HBO’s sci-fi drama, The Nevers. Working for HBO had been a goal of Nina’s for a long time.

“My whole entire career, my goal has always been to work at HBO. It’s like the crème de la crème of television, you know, they always had the best shows when I was growing up,” Nina says.

While she was directing her episodes of The Nevers, HBO的高管注意到了Nina的才华，并邀请她执导了几集他们的犯罪剧 Perry Mason. 这些经历让妮娜迎来了下一个大好机会:导演《十大菠菜台子》的一集 The Last of Us.

“I met with [the producers for The Last of Us这似乎是一个非常好的会议，但每个人都想这样做 The Last of Us, so I didn't have high hopes. A few weeks go by. I made my peace with it. It wasn't going to happen. 然后突然，我接到了经理的电话，他们说，The Last of Us 刚刚打电话给他们，他们想让你为他们做一集，’”尼娜分享道.

“So now I'm going to head down there in June to direct an episode, and it's like a dream come true, you know? 只是这款开创性的电子游戏被改编成了一部很棒的电视剧，演员也很棒. And I get to be part of it. It’s another milestone hit [in my career].”

尼娜已经完成了她为自己设定的许多职业目标, 但她还没有停下来——她想导演一部完整的电视剧，并制作一部故事片. But no matter what she’s working on, 尼娜确保她给观众带来的情感联系与她最初被电视吸引时一样.

“Whenever I go [to a new project], 我只是想在演员的表演中找到那种感觉, or in the way that we're shooting it, 这将真正与那些除了周四晚上没有其他事情的人联系起来 Grey's Anatomy. 这是我在每个项目中都会用到的一件重要的事情……这是把我在生活中遇到的每个人的一小部分，以某种方式编织成能帮助别人成长的东西, or make them happy, or make them feel something for just one moment. I think that's a really powerful thing to be able to do.”