Tom Piper is a British theatre designer who regularly collaborates with director Michael Boyd

Michael Boyd

Michael Boyd is a British theatre director, and current artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has regularly collaborated with stage designer Tom Piper since they first worked together on a pantomime for the Tron Theatre in Glasgow.-Early years:Boyd was born in Belfast, Northern...

. He became an Associate Designer with the Royal Shakespeare Company

Royal Shakespeare Company

The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...

 in 2004.

Piper, born in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 on 24 November 1964, was educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford

Magdalen College School, Oxford

Magdalen College School is an independent school for boys aged 7 to 18 and girls in the sixth form, located on The Plain in Oxford, England. It was founded as part of Magdalen College, Oxford by William Waynflete in 1480....

. In 1984 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...

 to read biology, but in mid-course switched to art history. From 1988 to 1990 he attended the Slade School of Art postgraduate course in theatre design.

In 1990 he spent six months with Peter Brook

Peter Brook

Peter Stephen Paul Brook CH, CBE is an English theatre and film director and innovator, who has been based in France since the early 1970s.-Life:...

's theatre company in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, working on Brook's visionary production of The Tempest

The Tempest

The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...

, before becoming a freelance designer working at the Nottingham Playhouse

Nottingham Playhouse

The Nottingham Playhouse is a theatre in Nottingham, England. It was first established as a repertory theatre in the 1950s when it operated from a former cinema. Directors during this period included Val May and Frank Dunlop.-The building:...

, Hampstead Theatre

Hampstead Theatre

Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in the vicinity of Swiss Cottage and Belsize Park, in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers. In 2009 it celebrates its 50 year anniversary.The original theatre was...

 and the Royal Lyceum Theatre

Royal Lyceum Theatre

The Royal Lyceum Theatre is a 658 seat theatre in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, named after the Theatre Royal Lyceum and English Opera House, the residence at the time of legendary Shakespearean actor Henry Irving. It was built in 1883 by architect C. J. Phipps at a cost of UK£17,000 on behalf...

 in Edinburgh and winning the London Fringe Best Design Award for Cat in the Ghetto, staged at the Tabard Theatre, Chiswick

Chiswick

Chiswick is a large suburb of west London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It is located on a meander of the River Thames, west of Charing Cross and is one of 35 major centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, with...

, West London.

He first worked with Michael Boyd at the Tron Theatre

Tron Theatre

The Tron Theatre is located at the corner of Trongate and Chisholm Street, in the Merchant City area of Glasgow, Scotland.From its early years as a theatre club, the Tron has grown into a thriving multi-faceted venue...

 in Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

 with his design for the 1991 production of the pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk, since when their careers have been closely linked.

Piper claims he first got into theatre design almost by accident. He had wanted to be a biologist and was studying natural sciences at Cambridge University, when his old school friend, Sam Mendes

Sam Mendes

Samuel Alexander "Sam" Mendes, CBE is an English stage and film director. He is best known for his Academy Award-winning work on his debut film American Beauty and his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret , Oliver! , Company and Gypsy . He's currently working on the 23rd James Bond...

, was directing a production of The Tempest and Piper volunteered to build the set.

A year after Boyd became RSC Artistic Director, Piper was appointed the RSC's associate designer.

In 2009, Piper collected the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Costume Design for his work on The Histories.