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 a 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), and MJ (2022).

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,^[1] Tazewell graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts and NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.^[2] Tazewell was a resident artist and associate professor of costume design at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (2003–2006).^[3][4]

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.^[5] 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.

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

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.^[2]