Nicolas DeGrazia is a six-time Emmy award-winning writer, producer, and director. He is the co-founder and Creative Director of Bitter Jester Studios, a television/web content production company with clients including Nike, United Airlines, the American Medical Association, the US Postal Service, and Ravinia.

Nicolas is also a James Beard Award nominee, a sketch comedian with The Comic Thread (Best Group: LA Comedy Festival, Audience Choice: Chicago Fringe Fest), has a sandwich named after him(!), and is the Founder and Producer of the Bitter Jester Music Festival, which he also Co-Emcees.

A former competitor in the Bitter Jester Music Festival (2012-15) and three-time 3rd Place winner with his band, The Ska-lers, Michael returned to BJMF as a volunteer, then as a judge and Lead Judge, following by our official “Performance Advisor in 2018.” Michael now holds the position of Director of Education for the Bitter Jester Music Festival.

In this role, he records real-time commentary and feedback to the bands as they compete in their preliminary concerts. He then organizes and recaps all of the judges scores and information, providing feedback and data to our competition the bands. He works as a liaison to the preliminary round competition judges and then assumes the role of a judge himself for our July 4 Grand Finale competition.