KRISTI ZEA

Kristi Zea has been in the contemporary film scene for over three decades and is acclaimed for her work as a Production Designer, Costume Designer and Producer of major feature films of the 80’s, 90’s and 00’s.

​

PRODUCTION DESIGN

She production designed Martin Scorsese’s films New York Stories (1989), Goodfellas (Academy Award Winner 1990), and The Departed  (Academy Award Winner 2006); Jonathan Demme’s films Married to the Mob (1988), Beloved (1998), The Silence of the Lambs (Academy Award Winner 1991), Philadelphia (Academy Award Winner 1993), Manchurian Candidate (2004), and Barry Levinson’s Sleepers (1996).

​

Later Zea production designed Brett Ratner’s Red Dragon (2002) and Roger Michelle’s Changing Lanes (2002), as well as Neil Jordan’s 
The Brave One (2007). Over the next four years, she was production designer for Kasi Lemmons’ Black Nativity (2013), Nancy Meyer's The Intern (2015), the NBC series American Odyssey (2015), and independent film The Comedian (2016) starring Robert DeNiro. Her production design for Sam Mendes’ Revolutionary Road (2008) was nominated for an Oscar.

​

Kristi Zea has been part of NBC’s drama New Amsterdam since its beginning in 2008 serving as production designer for the pilot and 11 additional episodes. She was production designer for three episodes of Netflix The Watcher. She has won acclaim for her production design for Daddio (2023) directed by Christi Hall starring Sean Penn and Dakota Johnson.

​

COSTUME DESIGN

Additional credits include costume designer for Alan Parker’s Fame (1980), Shoot the Moon (1982), and Birdy (1984), as well as James L. Brooks’ Terms of Endearment (1983) and Larry Kasdan’s Silverado (1985).

​

PRODUCER

Zea produced James L. Brooks’ Broadcast News (1987) and produced 
As Good As It Gets (1997) which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. She also produced and designed the independent film 
The Joneses (2009) starring Demi Moore and David Duchovny.

​

DIRECTOR

Zea’s most recent credits include:

​

NBC’s series New Amsterdam (2018) which she designed and directed "Five Miles West" (Season 1, Episode 18) and “Lift Off” (Season 2, Episode 17). Zea also directed HBO’s Critic’s Choice-nominated Notes from the Field starring Anna Deavere Smith (2018) which is currently available online.

​

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 American Masters. Her latest producing and directing effort is the short feature Talking Pictures starring the extraordinary ekphrastic poet Bob Holman!

 

(updated 2023)

​

​