Paul Tazewell facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Paul Tazewell
|
|
---|---|
Born |
Akron, Ohio, U.S.
|
Education | North Carolina School of the Arts (BFA) New York University (MFA) |
Awards | Helen Hayes Awards Resident Design Lucille Lortel Awards AUDELCO Award Princess Grace Award |
Paul Tazewell is an American costume designer for the theatre, dance, and opera and television. After training at New York University Tisch School of the Arts he started his career on Broadway. He went on to win a Tony Award and an Emmy Award as well as a nomination for an Academy Award.
Tazewell made his Broadway debut as a costume designer with Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk in 1996. He went on to receive the Tony Award for Best Costume Design of a Musical for Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton (2016). His other Tony-nominated works include The Color Purple (2006), In the Heights (2008), Memphis (2010), A Streetcar Named Desire (2012), Ain't Too Proud (2019), MJ (2022), and Suffs (2024).
He is also the first African American male costume designer to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design, for his work on Steven Spielberg's 2021 film version of West Side Story. He received a Primetime Emmy Award for his work on The Wiz Live! (2016).
Early life and education
Born in Akron, Ohio, Tazewell graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts and NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Tazewell was a resident artist and associate professor of costume design at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (2003–2006).
His brother, Jonathan Tazwell, is also an award winning writer and director of the feature film "Gotta Get Down To It" and other short films, including his film, "Breezewood.". Jonathan Tazwell is the Thomas S. Turgeon Professor of Drama and Filma at Kenyon College in Ohio, and founded the college's film major.
Career
Tazewell has designed costumes for over a dozen Broadway productions, starting with Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk in 1996 (receiving a Tony Award nomination). Over Tazewell's career, he has costumed numerous plays that are predominantly African American and Latino. Other musicals include On the Town (Revival), The Color Purple, and, in 2009, Guys and Dolls (Revival) and Memphis. Recent Broadway work includes Dr Zhivago, Side Show, and A Streetcar Named Desire. Plays on Broadway have included Lombardi, The Miracle Worker (Revival), Magic/Bird and the Tony Award-winning revival of A Raisin in the Sun. His off-Broadway work as a costume designer includes Hamilton, Elaine Stritch at Liberty (2001), Boston Marriage (2002), Ruined, One Flea Spare, Flesh and Blood, and Harlem Song (Apollo Theater).
In regional theatre he has designed costumes for, among many, Arena Stage (The Women, 1999, and Polk County, 2002), The Guthrie Theatre, The Goodman Theatre, and La Jolla Playhouse. His work for ballet companies includes the Boston Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and the Bolshoi Ballet. Opera credits at Glimmerglass Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera, ENO, and the Metropolitan Opera.
Tazewell also designed the costumes for the film adaptation of Wicked.
Credits
Film
- Harriet (2019)
- West Side Story, 20th Century Studios (2021)
- Wicked, Universal Pictures (2024)
- Wicked: Part Two, Universal Pictures (2025)
Television
- The Wiz Live!, NBC (2015)
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, HBO (2017)
- Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert, NBC (2018)
Theatre
- Before It Hits Home (1992)
- Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk (1996)
- On the Town (1998)
- Fascinating Rhythm (1999)
- Boston Marriage (2002)
- Elaine Stritch At Liberty (2002)
- Caroline, or Change (2003)
- A Raisin in the Sun (2004)
- The Color Purple (2005)
- In the Heights (2008)
- Guys and Dolls (2009)
- Memphis (2009)
- Fetch Clay, Make Man (2010)
- Lombardi (2010)
- The Miracle Worker (2010)
- Jesus Christ Superstar (2012)
- A Streetcar Named Desire (2012)
- Magic/Bird (2012)
- Side Show (2014)
- Hamilton (2015)
- Doctor Zhivago (2015)
- Summer: The Donna Summer Musical (2018)
- Escape to Margaritaville (2018)
- Ain't Too Proud (2019)
- MJ (2022)
- Mr. Saturday Night (2022)
- Suffs (2024)
- Death Becomes Her (2024)
Awards and nominations
He is recipient of six total Tony Award nominations for Costume Design, four Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Costume Design, two Lucille Lortel Awards (for On the Town and Hamilton), Henry Hewes Award and the Theater Development Fund's Irene Sharaff Award in 1997. He received Princess the Grace Statue Award bestowed by the Princess Grace Foundation to artists of excellence in various disciplines.
Year | Association | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2022 | Academy Awards | Best Costume Design | West Side Story | Nominated | |
2020 | Black Reel Awards | Outstanding Costume Design | Harriet | Nominated | |
2022 | West Side Story | Nominated | |||
2021 | Chicago Film Critics Association Awards | Best Costume Design | West Side Story | Nominated | |
2016 | Costume Designers Guild Awards | Excellence in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Television | The Wiz Live! | Nominated | |
2019 | Excellence in Variety, Reality-Competition, Live Television | Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert! | Nominated | ||
2021 | Hamilton | Won | |||
2022 | Excellence in Period Film | West Side Story | Nominated | ||
2022 | Critics' Choice Movie Awards | Best Costume Design | West Side Story | Nominated | |
2015 | Laurence Olivier Awards | Best Costume Design | Memphis | Nominated | |
2018 | Hamilton | Nominated | |||
2016 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Costumes for a Variety, Nonfiction, or Reality Program | The Wiz Live! | Won | |
2018 | Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert! | Nominated | |||
1996 | Tony Awards | Best Costume Design | Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk | Nominated | |
2006 | Best Costume Design in a Musical | The Color Purple | Nominated | ||
2008 | In the Heights | Nominated | |||
2010 | Memphis | Nominated | |||
2012 | Best Costume Design in a Play | A Streetcar Named Desire | Nominated | ||
2016 | Best Costume Design in a Musical | Hamilton | Won | ||
2019 | Ain't Too Proud | Nominated | |||
2022 | MJ the Musical | Nominated | |||
2024 | Suffs | Nominated |