Nicholas St. John (screenwriter)

Nicodemo Oliverio, better known as Nicholas St. John, is an American screenwriter. He has collaborated with film director Abel Ferrara in nine films together including The Driller Killer (1979), Body Snatchers (1993) and The Addiction (1995). For his work in the film, The Funeral (1996), also directed by Ferrara, St. John was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay. Other films St. John wrote include Ms. 45 (1981) and King of New York (1990), both of them also directed by Ferrara.

St. John attended Lakeland High School. It was at high school where he met and befriended Ferrara. Together, both he and Ferrara attended and graduated from New York University.

Under the pseudonym Nicholas George, St. John wrote the screenplay for Ferrara's 1976 pornographic film, 9 Lives of a Wet Pussy. He went on to write the screenplay of Ferrara's directorial debut, The Driller Killer (1979). Then, St. John wrote Ferrara's second film, Ms. 45 (1981).

A notable Ferrara film in which St. John did not write the screenplay was Bad Lieutenant (1992). A devout Catholic, St. John refused to work with Ferrara on that particular film because of its blasphemous images. St. John also tried to dissuade Ferrara and Harvey Keitel, who played the titular role, from even making it. Despite this, St. John wrote the scripts of Ferrara's next films Body Snatchers and Dangerous Game, both released in 1993. The last two films that St. John has written to date are Ferrara's The Addiction (1995) and The Funeral (1996).

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