Oscar-Winning Costume Designer Ruth E. Carter to Give Keynote Speech at UCLA TFT's 19th Annual Design Showcase West

The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television announced today that Academy Award-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter (Black Panther) will be the keynote speaker and Academy Award-winning production designer Hannah Beachler (Black Panther) will give welcome remarks during the 19th annual Design Showcase West (DSW) on Saturday, June 5, 2021, taking place in a dynamic virtual format this year.

Carter made history in 2019 when she became the first African American costume designer to win the Academy Award for Best Costume Design, in recognition of her Afrofuturistic designs in the Marvel blockbuster Black Panther. Carter has more than 40 film credits in a career that spans more than three decades and encompasses theater, film and television. Among her numerous accolades, she previously received Academy Award nominations for her costume designs in Spike Lee's Malcolm X and Steven Spielberg's Amistad; and an Emmy Award nomination for the 2016 Roots miniseries reboot. Earlier this year, she was the second costume designer and first Black costume designer to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is a member of the Board of Governors for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Foundation and is a founder of the Mildred Blount Scholarship Fund. Carter received her bachelor of arts degree in theater arts from Hampton University in Hampton, Va., and an honorary doctorate degree from Suffolk University in Boston.

Beachler made history when she became the first African American to be nominated and win a Best Production Design Academy Award for her work on Marvel's Black Panther, directed by her longtime collaborator Ryan Coogler. Her other credits include Creed, the 2017 Academy Award Best Picture winner Moonlight and Beyoncé's 2016 TV special and visual album Lemonade.

On Saturday, June 12, Design Showcase West is teaming up with Netflix to host a conversation with costume designers Ellen Mirojnick (Bridgerton), Claire Parkinson (The Politician) and Wendy Partridge (Shadow and Bone). The panel will be moderated by costume designer and UCLA TFT Professor Chrisi Karvonides-Dushenko (American Horror Story).

DSW, also sponsored this year by The Walt Disney Company, was created by UCLA TFT and is presented by the UCLA TFT Department of Theater. It is the only national entertainment design showcase on the West Coast featuring the work of graduate students from the nation's top university design programs. Exhibits range from costume design to scenic, sound, lighting, and production design. Studio executives, film and television producers, theater artistic directors and professional designers attend DSW to meet the industry's fresh rising stars. The Student Gallery at Design Showcase West opened on Friday, May 28, featuring the work of students graduating from UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television; American Film Institute; California Institute for the Arts; California State University Long Beach; Carnegie Mellon University; Chapman University; New York University; San Diego State University; Southern Methodist University; University of California Irvine; University of Georgia; University of Missouri-Kansas City; University of North Carolina School of the Arts; University of Texas at Austin and University of Washington.

Recent guest speakers at DSW have included production designer Mark Worthington (WandaVision) in 2019; costume designer Paul Tazewell (Hamilton) in 2018; production designer Deborah Riley (Game of Thrones) in 2017; filmmaker Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood) in 2016; producer Bill Prady (The Big Bang Theory) in 2015; and costume designer Ellen Mirojnick (Bridgerton) in 2014.

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