Nancy D. Kates is an independent filmmaker and writer based in Berkeley, California who worked as a journalist in New York and Boston before turning to film. She is notable for her films Regarding Susan Sontag, a feature documentary about the late essayist, novelist, director and activist and Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin, a full-length documentary she made with co-producer Bennett Singer about Bayard Rustin, the gay civil rights leader.

She has received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Foundation for Jewish Culture and the Sundance Documentary Film Program.