Nelson McCausland was born in North Belfast in 1951 and educated at Carr’s Glen Primary School, Belfast Royal Academy, Worcester College, Oxford, and Queen’s University Belfast. 

He was a science teacher in a large secondary school in the Shankill area and then became the Northern Ireland secretary of the Lord’s Day Observance Society. 

Nelson was the first chairman of the Ulster-Scots Heritage Council (now the Ulster-Scots Community Network), which was founded in 1995, and he then became the first director of the organisation in 1997. 

He was elected to Belfast City Council in 1989 to represent the Castle area of North Belfast and he was High Sheriff of Belfast in 1997.  In the course of the past twenty years he has represented the council on a number of outside bodies including the Belfast Education and Library Board and the boards of trustees of the Ulster Museum and the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum.  He was also a member of the Community Relations Council.

Nelson joined the DUP in 2001 and in the council elections of that year he moved from the Castle area to the Oldpark area of North Belfast. 

He was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2003 to represent the North Belfast constituency, alongside his colleague Nigel Dodds MP.  The DUP in North Belfast has a network of three full-time advice centres and is noted for the high standard of its constituency work.  In the Assembly Nelson has taken a particular interest in culture, education, human rights and equality and in 2007 he represented the DUP on the Bill of Rights Forum.  In June 2009 he was appointed Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure.

He is a member of the Orange Order and Royal Black Institution and is the former convenor of the Education Committee of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland.  He is also the author of a number of booklets including Patrick: Apostle of Ulster.

Nelson is married to Mary, who worked for many years as a radiographer in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, and they have been married for 35 years.  His main hobbies are reading and research and his interests include local history, culture, theology and gospel music.