Isabella Byrd

Isabella Byrd is an American lighting designer. She has designed plays and musicals, and is known for her close collaborations with major American playwrights. She attended Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, where she was introduced to lighting design as an artistic discipline, and went on to earn a BFA in Theatre Design & Technology at the University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music.

Early in her career, Byrd worked as an assistant to designers Jane Cox, Tyler Micoleau, Matt Frey, and Paul Toben. Her approach to theatrical design is just as concerned with time and duration as it is with light and darkness. The key themes across her body of work include an interest in how human scale relates to both architecture and the natural landscape, as well as observations and explorations in contrast, visual lyricism, shadow play, and the uncanny.

Byrd describes the combination of artistry and technical knowledge at play in her lighting design work as "trying to teach the robots poetry."

Byrd is an active member of United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829 and an advocate for pay equity in the live-entertainment industry.

New York magazine's Sara Holdren described her design for Annie Baker's Infinite Life as "crisp, beautiful, and impressively funny."

Other work Byrd worked as a creative producer for the 13P playwrights' collective archival website.

She designed lighting for Ceilidh in its North American premiere, directed by Sam Pinkleton at the M&T Bank Exchange in Baltimore, Maryland in 2025.

With fellow lighting designer Alejandro Fajardo, Byrd is a co-creator of the Instagram hashtag #thelightin, which collects images of natural lighting effects and phenomena all over the world.