Yi Zhao is a Beijing-born, Paris-raised and U.S.-educated lighting designer currently based in Berlin and working internationally, whose designs for theater, opera, live music and dance are informed by a rigorous background in fine art photography and a passion for music. His lighting designs have been seen at Lincoln Center Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Signature Theatre, Soho Rep., Ars Nova, the Guthrie Theater, Mark Taper Forum, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, American Conservatory Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, The Wilma Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Opera Omaha, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Curtis Institute of Music, ArtsEmerson, Philadelphia FringeArts, Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and Ballet de Lorraine in France, among others. He has collaborated with directors & choreographers Lileana Blain-Cruz, Sarah Benson, Blanka Zizka, Les Waters, Liz Diamond, Joel Ferrell, James Bundy, Miguel Guttierrez, Michael Counts, Desdemona Chiang, Ralph Peña, Chris Bayes, Alec Duffy, Charlotte Brathwaite, and Nicole Canuso, among others. He holds degrees from the Yale School of Drama and the University of Chicago, and is a recipient of the 2016 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Theatre.