Having designed costumes for film, television, Broadway, regional theaters for more than three decades, Paul Tazewell is one of the industry’s most revered designers. 

 

From his Academy Award®-nominated work in West Side Story to creating costumes for the Tony Award®-winning Broadway production of Hamilton, his creations have captivated audiences across the globe. 

 

The highly anticipated Universal’s Wicked Part 1, featuring Tazewell’s designs, was released on November 27, 2024, showcasing the reimagined world created by director John M. Chu and starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. Wicked: For Good will be released November 21,  2025.

 

Additionally, Tazewell’s costume designs can be seen in Death Becomes Her by Julia Mattison and Noel Carey, which is currently playing on Broadway.

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Tazewell received a Drama Desk Award and Tony Award nomination for his work in the 2024 Broadway production of Suffs. He is also the 2024 NAACP Theatre Award recipient for Best Costume Design for Ain’t Too Proud. 

  

In 2016, he received an Emmy Award for NBC’s The Wiz! Live. Other screen credits include Harriet (Focus Features), The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (HBO), and Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert (NBC). Other notable honors include two Lucille Lortel Awards, four Helen Hayes Awards, a CDGA Award, a Princess Grace Foundation Fellowship, and The Princess Grace Statue Award. 

  

Tazewell has worked with renowned companies such as The Metropolitan Opera, The Bolshoi Ballet, The English National Opera, Theatre du Chatelet, The Public Theater, The National Theater, The Kennedy Center, The Guthrie Theater, Arena Stage, Houston Grand Opera, San Francisco Opera, and many more. 

 

Tazewell began his Broadway career with the groundbreaking musical ‘Bring in Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk,  directed by George C. Wolfe. Other Broadway credits include In the Heights; Ain’t Too Proud; The Color Purple; Dr Zhivago; Memphis; Caroline, or Change; Elaine Stritch at 

Liberty; Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam; Lombardi, and Magic/Bird. Revival work includes Side Show; A Streetcar Named Desire; Jesus Christ Superstar; Guys and Dolls; A Raisin in the Sun, and On the Town.

 

In 2021, Tazewell designed Fire Shut Up In My Bones, The Met's first performance of an opera by a Black composer, Terence Blanchard, and his adaptation of Charles M. Blow’s moving memoir. 

  

Tazewell holds an MFA from New York University and a BFA from North Carolina School of the Arts.  He has been a guest artist at both New York University and North Carolina School of the Arts. From 2003-2006, he held a faculty position at Carnegie Mellon University. 

 

He currently resides in New York City.