Karen is originally from the East Coast where she received a BFA in Graphic Design. After graduation, she worked as a graphic designer and art director at several Philadelphia firms before going to study theatrical production design at the Yale School of Drama where she received several scholarships. While there, she was part of the team selected to travel to the Moscow Arts Theatre and bring back a production of Chekov's "Ivanov" to Yale Repertory Theatre.

After moving to New York in 1992, she designed over 65 sets for many of the nation's top regional theatres and opera companies including Manhattan Theatre Club, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Denver Center Theatre, Austin Lyric Opera, Alabama Shakespeare Festival and South Coast Rep. She received an American Theatre Wing award for her 3D projection designs for Mabou Mines' "Epidog" and has received two Drama Logue awards in Southern California. Her production design for Los Angeles Opera's "On Gold Mountain", based on novelist Lisa See's family biography, was in an exhibit at the Autry Museum in Los Angeles and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.

It was her work with Los Angeles Opera that convinced her to move to LA in 2000. Since then she has designed graphics for over 60 movies including "Water for Elephants", "Zodiac", "Alice Through the Looking Glass", Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master", "Trumbo", "Get on Up", "Ad Astra", "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom", Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon", Disney's new animated "Pinocchio" directed by Robert Zemeckis and "Unfrosted, The Story of the Pop Tart" directed by Jerry Seinfeld.

She has been a member of two Oscar-winning design teams -- Martin Scorsese's "The Aviator" and Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln". She also worked with the Emmy-winning design team of Steven Soderbergh's "Behind the Candelabra" for HBO. Other Oscar nominations include "Killers of the Flower Moon", "Passengers", "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" and "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events".

In 2017, she became a member of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Her work can be seen at www.karenteneyck.com.

© Karen TenEyck, 2024