Faculty
Kristi Zea
An Oscar-nominated production designer, Kristi Zea has been on the contemporary film scene for over three decades and is acclaimed for her work major feature films including The Silence of the Lambs, Goodfellas, The Departed, Revolutionary Road. Her television credits include The Leftovers and New Amsterdam. She is also a director and an Oscar-nominated producer.
Zea has production designed two Academy Award-winning films for Martin Scorsese: Goodfellas and The Departed, as well as Life Lessons, Scorsese’s installment of New York Stories. She also worked extensively with director Jonathan Demme, production designing two of his Oscar-winning films: The Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia, as well as Demme’s films Beloved, Married to the Mob, and The Manchurian Candidate. Her production design for Sam Mendes’ Revolutionary Road was nominated for an Oscar.
Zea’s other production design credits include Brett Ratner’s Red Dragon and Tower Heist, Barry Levinson’s Sleepers, Nancy Meyer’s The Intern, Roger Michell’s Changing Lanes, Neil Jordan’s The Brave One, Kasi Lemmons’ Black Nativity, Oliver Stone’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, the NBC series American Odyssey, and The Comedian starring Robert DeNiro.
She recently designed the NBC series New Amsterdam and also directed two episodes for that series. Zea also directed HBO’s Critic’s Choice-nominated Notes from the Field starring Anna Deavere Smith (2018).
Zea produced James L. Brooks’ Broadcast News and produced As Good As It Gets which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. She also produced and designed the independent film The Joneses starring Demi Moore and David Duchovny.
Zea produced and directed the documentary Everybody Knows… Elizabeth Murray which had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2016 and is currently streaming on PBS American Masters. Her latest producing and directing effort is the short feature Talking Pictures starring the extraordinary ekphrastic poet Bob Holman.
Earlier in her career she served as costume designer for three Alan Parker films: Fame, Shoot the Moon and Birdy; as well as James L. Brooks’ Terms of Endearment and Larry Kasdan’s Silverado.