About

Maggie Whitaker is a costume designer, educator, producer, and activist. They have designed for theatre, film, and video games over the course of their career. With a foundation in theatre, they have translated their love of new work development into a successful career in film. With feature films showcased at acclaimed festivals like Sundance, Hamptons International Film Festival, Frameline, and more, many have gone on to have theatrical and streaming releases. Additionally, their design work is featured in several short films in Oscars eligible competitions touring the festival circuit, with “Grace”, “Freyr”, “Liminality” and “After What Happened at the Library” collecting recognition and awards as they move forward in their trajectory.

Their work as a costume designer is evolving, as they are working as a consulting producer on more and more short films and independent live theatrical and immersive projects. They are taking their broad capacity to network labor, build capacity, and lead departments to add to their portfolio of skills when an independent project needs that extra bit of support. Because of this capacity and desire to build a larger future for their work in the industry, they are focusing their work on building more sustainable models of design. With this as a motivator, they created a sustainable design mixer to New York during Tribeca Film Festival with the goal of creating better pathways for reducing waste and reinforcing local film infrastructure nationwide.

In the last year, they have joined forces with Madeline Berger Design to create a new costume design, production, and education hub in Oakland. Mission driven to build the infrastructure needed for one of the most creative and diverse professional arts communities nationwide, Bay Wardrobe Collective has become a networking centerpiece for commercial, film, and live performance costume professionals to hone their craft in a space designed to elevate their art. 

Mx. Whitaker’s theatrical work includes the world premieres of nationally recognized plays including “Eureka Day” by Jonathan Spector at the Aurora Theatre, “I and You,” by Lauren Gunderson at Marin Theatre, and “Truffaldino Says No!” by Ken Slattery at Shotgun Players.  Integrating the visual intimacy that cinematic design offers with the connection between characters and audience of live theatre, they have built a lasting relationship creating designs within immersive theatrical experiences at the Palace Theatre in San Francisco. Their continuing love of live theatre is based in a respect of text, the development process, and the active participation of creating new work. They actively seek live theatre projects that challenge their creative capacity, offer them the ability to imagine new worlds, and move with an intimacy in detail that allows their work to stay relevant between all narrative media.

They received their BFA in Theatre Design at the University of South Florida and their MFA in Costume Design at the University of San Diego, California. In addition to their production work, they created a fully accredited BFA and MFA Costume Design Program for the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Mx. Whitaker has written courses for both an online and onsite program that deal with the specific training of costume designers through individual project work as well as collaborations with the School of Acting and the School of Motion Pictures and Television. Their alumni have gone on to fellowships at Santa Fe Opera and American Conservatory Theatre, and can be found working in New York and Los Angeles. Mx. Whitaker is a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829 and Costume Designers Guild, local 892.