David Zinn

David Zinn is a costume and scenic designer based in New York, New York. He has been nominated ten times for the Tony Award for both his costume designs and scenic designs, winning two Best Scenic Design for a Play awards for The Humans in 2016 and Stereophonic in 2024 and one Best Scenic Design in a Musical award for SpongeBob SquarePants in 2018.^[1] He has over 80 Off-Broadway credits in his lifetime.

Zinn in 2018.

Early life

Zinn was born on Bainbridge Island, near Seattle, Washington. He wanted to be an actor and then moved backstage to start designing in middle school.^[2] After using his high school career at Bainbridge High School to work in and around Seattle and Bainbridge Island, Zinn decided to move to New York City.^[3] Zinn attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts for his MFA in Design for Stage and Film where he said he was most influenced by musicals and by avant-garde theatre like the Wooster Group.^[4]

Career

Soon after leaving NYU, Zinn went to work as a costume designer for regional theater. After a big break at Santa Fe Opera, which featured his scenic and costume designs, he became known for both aspects of his work.^[3][5] He then went on to work in several Off-Broadway theater for years. He also worked closely with Target Margin Theater Company, headed by David Herskovits and graduate school friend Lenore Doxsee.^[6][7]

In 2010 Zinn worked on Broadway with his costume designs for Xanadu. He then went on to design costumes on Broadway for A Tale of Two Cities, In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play), Good People, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Other Desert Cities, The Other Place, Picnic, Rocky, Airline Highway, and An Act of God as well as scenic designs for The Realistic Joneses, Violet, The Real Thing, The Humans, and Present Laughter, and scenic and costume designs for Seminar, The Last Ship, Fun Home, Amélie, and SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical.^[8]

Awards and nominations

Theater

Source:^[9]

Year	Award	Show	Result
2008	Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Costume and Set Design	N/A	Won
	Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Scenic Design	The Four of Us	Nominated
	Henry Hewes Design Award, Scenic Design
2009	Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Scenic Design	Chairs
2010	Tony Award for Best Costume Design	In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)
	Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Scenic Design	The Pride
	Henry Hewes Design Award, Costume Design	Circle Mirror Transformation
	Henry Hewes Design Award, Scenic Design
2011	Henry Hewes Design Award, Scenic Design	Middletown
	Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Costume Design	Other Desert Cities
2012	Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Scenic Design	The Select (The Sun Also Rises)
	Henry Hewes Design Award, Scenic Design	The Submission
	Henry Hewes Design Award, Costume Design	Look Back in Anger
2013	Henry Hewes Design Award, Scenic Design	The Flick
	Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Scenic Design of a Play
2014	Henry Hewes Design Award, Costume Design	Fun Home
2015	Tony Award for Best Scenic Design of a Musical
	Tony Award for Best Costume Design of a Play	Airline Highway
2016	Henry Hewes Design Award, Costume Design	Fondly, Collette Richland
	Henry Hewes Design Award, Scenic Design	The Humans
	Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Scenic Design
	Tony Award for Best Scenic Design of a Play		Won
2017	Tony Award for Best Costume Design of a Play	A Doll's House, Part 2	Nominated
2018	Tony Award for Best Costume Design of a Musical	SpongeBob SquarePants	Nominated
	Tony Award for Best Scenic Design of a Musical		Won
2022	Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Scenic Design of a Musical	Kimberly Akimbo	Nominated
	Outer Critics Circle Awards for Scenic Design (Play or Musical)	The Minutes	Nominated
2024	Tony Award for Best Scenic Design of a Play	Jaja's African Hair Braiding	Nominated
	Tony Award for Best Scenic Design of a Play	Stereophonic	Won
	Tony Award for Best Costume Design of a Play	An Enemy of the People	Nominated
	Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Scenic Design (Broadway or Off-Broadway)	Stereophonic	Won