Biography

Born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, Lisa developed an early passion for fashion, creativity, and making things by hand. She earned a BA in Fashion Design from Dominican University, where she developed a particular interest in costume history, textile surface design, and fabric manipulation. After graduation, she worked as a Visual Merchandiser at Macy’s from, developing a strong eye for color, composition, styling, and visual storytelling.

In 2007, Lisa began pursuing theatrical costume design, starting with an internship at a local theatre before moving into professional costume work throughout the Chicagoland area. Over the following years, she designed and constructed costumes for numerous theatrical productions, including *A Christmas Carol*, *The Diary of Anne Frank*, *Monty Python’s Spamalot*, *Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat*, *The Marvelous Wonderettes*, *Picasso at the Lapin Agile*, and *The Little Mermaid*, among others. Working with the often limited budgets of community and regional theatre taught her to be resourceful, combining traditional costume-making techniques with creative sourcing, thrifted materials, and unconventional fabrication methods to achieve full-scale theatrical impact.

In 2010, Lisa discovered the world of comic and entertainment conventions and cosplay competitions, bringing her theatrical costume experience into a new creative arena. Through her cosplay work as Haelstorm Designs, she has continued to explore garment construction, historical costuming, textile design, prop fabrication, and digital fabrication, competing and presenting at conventions including C2E2, Fan Expo Chicago, and Los Angeles Comic Con.

Lisa currently works as a Makerspace Specialist at Arlington Heights Memorial Library, where she combines her background in costume design with modern maker technologies including 3D printing, laser cutting, sewing, embroidery, screen printing, and digital design. She is particularly passionate about making creative resources accessible and encouraging sustainable approaches to costume and prop making through material reuse, craft swaps, and community education.

Across theatre, cosplay, and makerspaces, Lisa's work is rooted in the same philosophy: creativity doesn't have to be limited by budget or materials. Whether designing for the stage, competing in cosplay, or helping another maker bring an idea to life, she combines traditional craftsmanship with resourcefulness, experimentation, and a love of storytelling through costume.
- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous