Danielle Earles for Century Photography
Over the course of his 36-year career, Nick Chiles has distinguished himself as one of the nation’s foremost chroniclers of African American life, culture and celebrity—both as a bestselling author and an award-winning journalist.
Chiles has compiled a long list of notable books as a co-writer.
Chiles teamed up with the influential pastor, activist, humanitarian and Hollywood producer Bishop T.D. Jakes to write Disruptive Thinking: A Daring Strategy to Change How We Live, Lead, and Love (Faith Words-Hachette), which hit the New York Times bestsellers list just a week after it was published in May 2023.
Chiles partnered with Hall of Fame boxer Andre Ward to pen his memoir Killing the Image: A Champion’s Journey of Faith, Fighting, and Forgiveness, published in November 2023.
Chiles worked with former NBA star and activist Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf to produce the memoir, In the Blink of An Eye: An Autobiography, published by Colin Kaepernick’s publishing company in October 2022.
Chiles is the co-author with Bobby Brown of the New York Times bestseller, Every Little Step: My Story, published in June 2016 by Dey Street Books/HarperCollins.
Chiles is the co-author with Rev. Al Sharpton of the New York Times bestseller, The Rejected Stone: Al Sharpton and the Path to American Leadership, which was released in October 2013 to lavish praise.
He is the co-author with Kirk Franklin of the New York Times bestseller, The Blueprint: A Plan for Living Above Life’s Storms (2010).
Chiles is the co-author of the 2014 book Justice While Black: Helping African-American Families Navigate and Survive the Criminal Justice System. Written with attorney Robbin Shipp, the book was an NAACP Image Awards finalist in 2015.
Chiles co-wrote four books that were published in 2021:
—a parenting memoir with Academy Award-winning actor (and Grammy-winning singer) Jamie Foxx, called Act Like You Got Some Sense;
—a spiritually empowering self-help guide with pastor to the stars Rev. Tim Storey, called The Miracle Mentality: How to Tap into the Source of Magical Transformation in Your Life;
—an inspiring tale of a young white boy’s life-long relationship with former Negro Leaguers, called Comeback Season: My Unlikely Story of Friendship with the Greatest Living Negro League Baseball Players (with foreword by Hank Aaron);
—a powerful look at the plight of black males in America, written with renown nonprofit leader Shawn Dove, called I Too Am America: On Loving and Leading Black Men and Boys.
He is the co-author of Fatherhood: Rising to the Ultimate Challenge with retired NBA center Etan Thomas, who is a member of President Obama’s Fatherhood Initiative. Released in May 2012, Fatherhood was called “memorable and eloquent” by Publisher’s Weekly.
Chiles was a co-writer with Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick of his 2012 book, Faith in the Dream.
He co-wrote the 2019 book Engage Connect Protect: Empowering Diverse Youth as Environmental Leaders with Angelou Ezeilo, his younger sister.
He has also worked as a celebrity ghostwriter.
Chiles wrote six books with his former wife, Denene Millner (who is the two-time #1 New York Times bestselling co-author with Steve Harvey of the books Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man and Straight Talk, No Chaser). Their non-fiction relationship series, What Brothers Think, What Sistahs Know, published by HarperCollins, was a fixture on the Essence bestseller list over several years. Their novel Love Don’t Live Here Anymore (Dutton) was an Essence and Blackboard bestseller. A Love Story was a finalist for the 2004 Open Book Award for best contemporary African-American fiction. As a fiction writer, Chiles published a short story in the anthology, Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America (Ballantine), which won a 1996 American Book Award.
Chiles also co-wrote an adventure/fantasy YA (young adult) novel called The Adventures of De-Ante Johnson: The Obsidian Knight with Jeff Jones. It is intended as a Harry Potter-type tale geared toward urban youth.
As a journalist, Chiles spent the bulk of his career as an education reporter, but he also covered politics, health and social services. He has won nearly 20 major journalism awards, including a 1992 Pulitzer Prize as part of a New York Newsday team covering a fatal subway crash. He also won the 1993 and 1989 National Education Reporting Award presented by the Education Writers Association. While he was on the staff of The Star-Ledger of New Jersey, Chiles was the recipient of three consecutive New Jersey Press Association awards as the top education reporter in the state in 1996, 1997 and 1998. More recently, he won the 2016 Green Eyeshade Award for best public affairs reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists, for a piece he did for The Hechinger Report on testing third-graders in Mississippi. He also won two National Association of Black Journalists awards for magazine writing in 2014 for stories in Ebony magazine, including a series on Saving Black Boys.
From 2003 to 2009, Chiles was Editor-in-Chief of Odyssey Couleur, a national multicultural travel magazine geared toward upper-income African Americans. During his years with the magazine, Chiles served as Art Director for numerous cover stories and photo and video shoots in locales ranging from Colombia to the Caribbean, the Florida Everglades to New York City.
He also served as Editor-in-Chief of the website AtlantaBlackstar.com, a news site focused on the African diaspora across the globe.
Chiles has worked as a literary agent with the Manhattan-based agency Aevitas Creative Management. He was a recipient of the Spencer Education Journalism Fellowship at Columbia University. Chiles was a member of the board overseeing the Atlanta Neighborhood Charter Schools; he is now a member of the board of the Spencer Education Journalism Fellowship. He is on the advisory board of the Hechinger Report, an independent newsroom covering inequity and innovation in education. He has served as a professor at Columbia Journalism School and at Princeton University as a recipient of the Ferris Fellowship. Chiles currently is an Industry Fellow and professor of journalism at the University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. He is also a communications consultant for the William Julius Wilson Institute at the Harlem Children’s Zone.
Chiles received his BA from Yale University and his MFA from the University of Georgia. He currently resides in Decatur, Georgia, with his wife Sadiqa Chiles.