Es Devlin_stage and costume designer

 Es Devlin

Stage Design

Es Devlin is an award-winning international stage and costume designer. Her work crosses a range of genres: opera, dance, film, theatre, tv and concerts. She also works as creative director for number of pop / rock / rap artists.


Es trained in music at the Royal Academy of Music as a teenager, she went on to study English literature at Bristol University, Fine Art at Central St Martins and finally set design at the Motley Theatre Design Course.

Theatre: Es's career began in theatre - first fringe theatres in London including the Bush and the Gate, then onto the the Royal National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company and most other major theatres in London including the Royal Court, Old and Young Vic, Almeida, Soho, Duke of York's, Haymarket, Comedy plus productions in New York, Madrid and Tokyo.

Opera: Next came opera - her first major commission was in 2003 in Vienna and she has gone on to design for most of the major European opera houses including El Liceu Barcelona, Netherlands Opera, Danish National Opera, Greek National Opera, Finnish National Opera, Theater an der Wien, Dresden Semperoper, Leipzig Oper, Oper Frankfurt, Royal Opera House, English National Opera and Glyndebourne.

Dance: Es also designs for dance - including pieces for Russell Maliphant, Rambert Dance Company, Nothern Ballet Theatre, Sadlers Wells and Cullberg Ballett, Sweden.

Concerts: In 2005 Kanye West saw some of Es's work and commissioned the stage designs for his world tour. This led to tour designs for a range of artists including Lady Gaga, Muse, Pet Shop Boys, Nitin Sawhney, Take That, Imogen Heap, Jamie Cullum,
Shakira, Goldfrapp, Lenny Kravitz and Jay Z including creative direction for many of these performances.

Film: Es's film work includes direction - a music video for Imogen Heap and a one hour film for London's BFI Imax Cinema to the music of Nitin Sawhney as well as costume design for Sally Potter's feature film RAGE and production design for short films and music videos by Mike Figgis.

TV: Her TV designs include MTV Europe Music Awards - EMAs - 2011 and 2010, Pet Shop Boys Lifetime Achievement Award performance at the BRIT Awards 2009, a short film for BBC2 plus performances by Kanye West including American Idol, BET Awards and VH1 Storytellers, and creative direction for Rihanna's performances at the BRIT and Grammy Awards 2012.

Collaborators: For a full list of collaborators please see Projects section of this site.

Awards: : Es was awarded TPi Stage Designer of the Year Award in 2012, 2011 and 2010, other awards include Olivier Award for Best Costume Design 2006, TMA Award for best Stage Design 1998 and Linbury Prize for Stage Design 1996.

esdevlin.com