Maarten Cornelis

Early Life:

Growing up in a theater family, Maarten got the stage bug at a young age. He landed his first leading role in a theatre production at the age of 5 and directed his first play by the age of 15. When Maarten was 14, he was accepted to the exclusive De Kunsthumaniora performing arts school in Antwerp, Belgium and graduated with honors at the age of 18.

During his studies at the performing arts school, he was exposed to many different ways of being on the stage. He focused on acting initially, but soon started to fall in love with singing and dancing. During his studies, many agencies and managers started to pick up on his talent and job offers started pouring in.

Early Career:

At the age of 16, Maarten was hired to be the choreographer and dancer for a number of music projects in Belgium – soon to be his gateway into the record industry. At 17, Maarten auditioned and was selected out of 500 people to be the leading vocal for the pop music group, TSQ (Tiger Squad). The audition process and launching of the band was part of a popular reality show named "Napels Zien," which aired on VRT (with over 1 million viewers weekly) in Belgium. TSQ became a success right away, and is known to have shot the most expensive music video in Belgium. TSQ’s biggest hit was “Let’s Get Together.”

Thanks to the popularity of the band, Maarten started his own restaurant, hosted a show on TV for Zones TV together with Belle Perez, was featured in numerous magazines, and judged a number of talent competition’s across Belgium.

Although uncredited Maarten also did the vocals for the #1 hit single, "Sex Met Die Blonde," by Dynamite.

After being accepted to The Lee Strasberg Institute in Los Angeles, Maarten decided to sell everything and make the big move to America in September of 2002, where he then started his courses at the Institute. After a year of studying at the Institute, Maarten was offered the job as Technical Director of the school and ended up designing more than 40 of their productions. This was the start to his career as a Light Designer.

Light Design:

Since graduation, Maarten has worked 8 years as Technical Director for the Italian Consulate – specifically the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles. He has designed the lighting for many noteworthy events at the Institute honoring artists such as Ennio Morricone, the LA Chamber Orchestra Concert, Bernardo Bertolucci, Pupi Avati, Dino De Laurentiis, Douglas Kirkland,Ferzan Özpetek, Maria Callas, as well as designing the premiere party for Francis Ford Coppola’s new movie ‘Tetro.’ In addition, he has had the privilege of showcasing works by Leonardo da Vinci by designing the showroom at the Italian Cultural Institute.

Maarten has recently created the light design for two Off-Broadway shows "Frankenstein" and 'Lilli Marlene" both produced by John Lant.

He design "Mastervoices: Of Thee I Sing" at CARNEGIE HALL.