Biography

Artist and Production Designer James Nilsen-Misra (BA[Hons] Production Design AFDA; BTech Fine Art Mandela University), is based in Cape Town and has worked on projects in Johannesburg, Gqeberha, London, New York & LA. Production design work includes the historic Terra X series for ZDF (Germany), Knee Deep in Hot Water for SABC as well as commercials for Carrefour (France), Deichmann and Porsche (Germany). NGO filmmaking projects include production design for The Global Fund and set dressing for the Community Media Trust. Collaborations with leading production designers include Colin Gibson (Oscar), Darryl Hammer (BAFTA), Fred Du Preez (SAFTA) and Karel Flint (SAFTA). Nilsen-Misra was set decorator alongside production designer Heidi Jokinen (Finland) on Homebound, which won the Next Nordic Generation Award at the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund.

His multimedia artwork has been shown at Everard Read, Ebony Curated, Absa L'Atelier and the Mandela Metropolitan. Performance art collaborations include Elgin Rust at the AVA and Athi Patra-Ruga at the opening of the new Stevenson in Cape Town. James served on the Executive & Curatorial Board of the Association for Visual Art, the Handspring Trust and Cape Town Pride. As curator, installing the featured artist retrospective touring exhibition for the National Arts Festival, Association for Visual Art and FNB Johannesburg Art Fair were highlights.

James managed two of Cape Town's leading prop houses, the contemporary Aartappel and the vintage Hot Tuna collections, the largest of their kinds in Africa. As theatre producer for the Tony Award winning Handspring Puppet Company on the hit play WarHorse, he worked with the National Theatre UK as well as the William Kentridge Studio on collaborations including Ubu and the Truth Commission, Woyzeck on the Highveld & Il Ritorno d'Ulisse.
- IMDb mini biography by: James NIlsen-Misra