Paul Tazewell


Paul Tazewell is an American costume designer for the theatre, dance, and opera and television. He received the 2016 Tony Award for best costume design for Hamilton. In 2016, he and his design team were awarded an Emmy for their work on The Wiz Live!. He is recipient of six total Tony Award nominations for costume design, four Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Costume Design, two Lucille Lortel Awards, 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.

Biography

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.
Tazewell has designed costumes for over a dozen Broadway productions, starting with Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk in 1996. Over Tazewell's career, he has costumed numerous plays that are predominantly African American and Latino. Other musicals include On the Town, The Color Purple, and, in 2009, Guys and Dolls and Memphis. Recent Broadway work includes Dr Zhivago, Side Show, and A Streetcar Named Desire. Plays on Broadway have included Lombardi, The Miracle Worker, 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, Boston Marriage, Ruined, One Flea Spare, Flesh and Blood, and Harlem Song.
In regional theatre he has designed costumes for, among many, Arena Stage, 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.

Selected work