Anne Militello began her career working for small touring companies in the San Francisco Bay area in the late 1970s. She learned the ropes from some of the best - climbing trusses and coiling cable on tours for artists like Santana and Eddie Money. When she hit her head on the glass ceiling on her way to being an LD, she started lighting bands in clubs right as the punk scene was exploding – a scene that was more welcoming of gender diversity.
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She lit bands at San Francisco’s notorious Mabuhay Gardens before heading to New York and the after-hours chaos of CBGB's, Danceteria, The Ritz, and The Mudd Club. By day, she worked as a shop electrician at Production Arts Lighting in Hell's Kitchen.
Militello earned an OBIE Award for lighting design for an Off Broadway Theater and by 28, she was designing on Broadway. After a meeting with Tom Waits reignited her love of concert design, she designed tours for Waits, Pearl Jam, Lou Reed, Robert Plant, Leonard Cohen and others.
During her career she has been a Walt Disney Imagineer, a professor at CalArts, and the founder of Vortex Lighting in Hollywood, where she now designs light for everything from concerts to architecture.