About Me
Hope Kozielski (she/her) is a lighting designer from Chico, CA, currently completing her Master of Fine Arts in Lighting Design at UCLA.
Hope began her journey in the performing arts at eight years old, where she fell in love with theater as a powerful storytelling form. Her growing interest in design and technical theater eventually led her offstage and into the wings, where she embraced every opportunity to learn and worked her way through backstage roles into the lighting booth. She began designing in high school and continues to draw on her background in musical theater, dance, and voice to inform her work.
Hope approaches light as an emotional language. Through color, angle, and intensity, she crafts environments that heighten storytelling and transport audiences, whether painting entirely new worlds or deepening our connection to the one we inhabit. For her, theater is an embodiment of imagination, and lighting is the magic that makes it believable.
Alongside her design work, Hope is deeply invested in education and mentorship. She has served as a Teaching Assistant for UCLA’s Lighting Lab, a foundational program in which first-year undergraduates learn to hang, circuit, and focus lighting equipment across all three main theater spaces for the full production season. In this role, she leads a crew of ten students, guiding them through Genie lift training and introductory electrician practices while fostering a collaborative and supportive learning environment.
Hope is also an active collaborator within UCLA’s production community, contributing to nearly every departmental production as either an assistant lighting designer or lead designer. She thrives in fast-paced, process-driven environments and is continually excited by new challenges that allow her to grow as both an artist and educator.
She is passionate about pursuing a career in theater, with a particular focus on musical theater, dance, and opera.