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UC grad Travis Hagenbuch award-winning lighting director

Brilliant lighting design shines on CCM alumnus

by Deborah Rieselman

Only six years after graduating from UC’s College-Conservatory of Music, Travis Hagenbuch has been nominated for his fourth primetime Emmy as a lighting director. He had previously won the trophy three times, but leaving the ceremony empty handed on Sept. 22, 2013, did not diminish the fact that he is a shooting star within an elite group.

The 2007 grad has found his niche directing lighting for live televised events, including the Olympics, President Obama’s inaugural celebration, a Super Bowl halftime show with Tom Petty, the Academy Awards, the Grammy Awards, the Tony Awards, the Academy of Country Music Awards, BET Awards, as well as TV specials for Lionel Richie, Betty White’s 90th birthday and Celine Dion. The three Emmys he nabbed were for the Vancouver Olympics’ opening ceremony in 2010 and for two Grammy ceremonies in 2011 and ’12.

Originally from Ottawa, Ill., Hagenbuch works at the design firm Full Flood in Los Angeles. His attraction to lighting began in the fifth grade when a teacher noticed his interest in electricity and asked him to rig lights for the school talent show. Later, in high school, he controlled the lights for plays and other productions.

In September 2013, he joined the "Queen Latifah" show as lighting director and director of photography. “I helped design the show over the summer,’ he says, “and so far it has been a nice change of pace from all the travel and late nights involved in the award shows and primetime TV specials — though I still plan to get out and do other shows now and then to keep things interesting.”

LINK: See Travis Hagenbuch’s extensive list of credits.

Televised events on which Hagenbuch was a lighting director

Hagenbuch's first Emmy: Vancouver '10 Olympics Opening Ceremonies

“Betty White’s 90th Birthday: A Tribute to America’s Golden Girl,” 2012

A cute sketch from the television special for which Hagenbuch did lighting direction