Donald Holder is an American lighting designer in theatre, opera and dance based in New York. He was born in 1962. He has been nominated for fourteen Tony Awards, winning the 1998 Tony Award for Best Lighting Design as well as the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for The Lion King. He won a second Tony in 2008 for the revival of South Pacific.[1] His lighting design for Paradise Square has been nominated for a 2022 Tony Award for Best Lighting Design of a Musical.[2] Additional Broadway credits include: Tootsie, Anastasia, Kiss Me Kate, Fiddler on the Roof, The Bridges of Madison County, She Loves Me, The Cherry Orchard, The King and I, Big Fish, Annie (2012 Broadway revival), Golden Boy, , Arcadia, The Motherfucker With The Hat, Promises, Promises, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Radio Golf, The Little Dog Laughed, Movin' Out, The Times They Are a-Changin', A Streetcar Named Desire, Holiday, Cyrano de Bergerac, and Prelude to a Kiss. Off-Broadway credits include Jeffrey and The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told. He was the theatrical lighting designer for seasons one and two of the NBC-Universal television series Smash.
Holder studied forestry at the University of Maine, where he graduated from in 1980. He also worked for the Portland Stage Company in Maine.[3] He holds a Masters of Fine Arts from the Yale School of Drama and is a student of Jennifer Tipton. He was the head of lighting design from 2006 to 2010 in the School of Theater at the California Institute of the Arts, and is currently Head of Lighting Design at the Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts.[4]
| Production | Award | Category | Outcome | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Juan Darien | Tony Award | Best Lighting Design | ||
| Drama Desk Award | Outstanding Lighting Design | ||||
| 1998 | The Lion King | Tony Award | Best Lighting Design | ||
| Drama Desk Award | Outstanding Lighting Design | ||||
| 2003 | Movin' Out | Tony Award | Best Lighting Design | ||
| Drama Desk Award | Outstanding Lighting Design | ||||
| 2004 | The Violet Hour | Drama Desk Award | Outstanding Lighting Design | ||
| 2005 | Gem of the Ocean | Tony Award | Best Lighting Design | ||
| Drama Desk Award | Outstanding Lighting Design | ||||
| A Streetcar Named Desire | Tony Award | Best Lighting Design of a Play | |||
| 2008 | Les Liaisons Dangereuses | Tony Award | Best Lighting Design of a Play | ||
| South Pacific | Tony Award | Best Lighting Design of a Musical | |||
| 2010 | Ragtime | Tony Award | Best Lighting Design of a Musical | ||
| 2013 | Golden Boy | Tony Award | Best Lighting Design of a Play | ||
| 2014 | The Bridges of Madison County | Tony Award | Best Lighting Design of a Musical | ||
| 2015 | The King and I | Tony Award | Best Lighting Design of a Musical | ||
| 2016 | Oslo | Tony Award | Best Lighting Design of a Play | ||
| 2018 | My Fair Lady | Tony Award | Best Lighting Design of a Musical | ||
| 2022 | Paradise Square | Tony Award | Best Lighting Design of a Musical |