
Kristi Zea
ASC/American Society of Cinematographers
“One of the most important things a production designer can do is to imbue the sets with as much character as you can. It’s about providing a container in which the story can thrive, without banging it over the audience’s head.”
Kristi is an acclaimed Production Designer, Costume Designer & Producer for dozens of feature films for over thirty years.
PRODUCTION DESIGN
She production designed Martin Scorsese’s films New York Stories (1989), Goodfellas (Oscar Winner 1990), and The Departed (Oscar Award Winner 2006); Jonathan Demme’s films Married to the Mob (1988), Beloved (1998), The Silence of the Lambs (Oscar Winner 1991), Philadelphia (Oscar Winner 1993), Manchurian Candidate (2004), and Barry Levinson’s Sleepers (1996).
Later, Zea production designed Brett Ratner’s Red Dragon (2002) and Roger Michelle’s Changing Lanes (2002), as well as Neil Jordan’s The Brave One (2007).
Her production design for Sam Mendes’ Revolutionary Road (2008) was nominated for an Oscar.
Over the next four years, she was production designer for Kasi Lemmons’ Black Nativity (2013) as well as Nancy Meyers’ The Intern (2015) and independent film The Comedian (2016) both starring Robert DeNiro.
PRODUCER
Zea produced James L. Brooks’ Broadcast News (1987)
Kristi produced As Good As It Gets (1997) which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture.
She also produced and designed the independent film The Joneses (2009) starring Demi Moore and David Duchovny.
DIRECTOR
For NBC’s New Amsterdam (2018), she directed “Five Miles West” (Season 1, Episode 18), And “Lift Off” (Season 2, Episode 17).
Zea also directed HBO’s Critic’s Choice-nominated Notes from the Field (2018) starring Anna Deavere Smith which is available on HBO Max.
Zea produced and directed the documentary Everybody Knows…Elizabeth Murray which had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2016. She then produced and directed Talking Pictures, poet Bob Holman’s loving tribute to his wife Elizabeth Murray. Both films can be streamed from Kino Now.
Zia is currently in production with Karen Goodman on the documentary On Tap