Megan Murphy-McLeod, a senior lighting designer at Lighting Design Alliance – a Salas O'Brien company, recently designed Celestial Park, a magical theme park land based off of light. at LDI 2025, she will be part of the panel, A Celestial Collaboration at Universal Epic Universe, exploring design for the first new theme park to open in Orlando since the 1990’s.
Part of the LDInnovation Conference, the session takes place on Monday, December 8 at 11:30am, West Hall, LVCC. Please use promo code SPEAKER25 for a 20% discount on an LDInnovation Conference Pass.
Live Design: Can you describe yourself in less than 50 words?
Megan Murphy-McLeod: Loud, determined, workaholic, sarcastic, passionate, mom.
LD: Please give a brief overview of your training/education/career path.
MMM: I became obsessed with lighting design in high school after joining stage crew. I did everything in my power to be hired at every community and small theatre that would have me. I always wanted to live in London, even before wanting to work in theatre, going to University there made perfect sense. After studying at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama I wanted to continue working in lighting, but, wanted something more fixed and office based than theatre. The answer presented itself in architectural lighting, so I continued my education at the University College of London, Bartlett School of Architecture. After living in the UK for a handful of years I moved to Los Angeles to work at Lighting Design Alliance. We were working on Motiongate in Dubai at the time and doing lighting for a theme park was something I always wanted to do. I've spent many years working on themed projects, restaurants, hotels, casinos, retail chains and community master plans. I have several projects that I am extremely proud of, but Celestial Park is a once in a lifetime opportunity that when presented with the role of project manager I leapt at immediately. It is by far the most involved I've been a project, and I take my projects pretty seriously. Since wrapping up I'm continuing work on other super cool, super secretive projects. In the modern age where EVERYTHING has a NDA can anyone really talk about anything?
Please describe your most recent project.
MMM: Celestial Park was described as a theme park land based off of light. It was this magical land where a mystical power was pulled down from the portals and then transmitted through than land via lighting. I have loved theme parks my entire life and when the concept for my actual dream job was in front of me I fully jumped in. Initially I was tasked simply with the two attractions, five portals and all 'Show' lighting. However, every facade and alllllllllllllllllll of Area Development is part of the 'Show' lighting, so I quickly became the lead lighting designer of the whole shebang. Since 2018 Celestial Park has been my baby. My extremely difficult, demanding, beautiful baby that came fully realized into something pretty cool. The lighting design for Epic Universes' central land is a once in a lifetime install that I was fortunate to work on with some of the coolest people on the planet. Between the army of lighting designers from LDA, our partners at Universal Creative, the programmers and integration technicians at 4-Wall and the numerous manufacturers, electricians, contractors and engineers who worked on every aspect of bringing this lighting dream project to life. I'm pretty lucky to have peaked in my thirties.
LD: What are you teaching at LDI and who is your target audience?
MMM: I am part of the professional panel discussing the lighting collaboration required to bring Celestial Park to a reality. Lighting professionals are the key demographic, theme park enthusiasts, tech nerds, and those who wish to see a professional group who genuinely enjoy each other's company discuss something they built together.
LD: What has been the biggest challenge of your career to date?
MMM: Balancing my burning passion for my job with trying to be an active mom and partner.
LD: What is your advice for people just getting into the industry?
MMM: Be kind and engaged. Nobody expects a newcomer to be fully experienced but any mentor worth having will have all the patience and enabling opportunities for somebody they enjoy working with.