Prof Gillian Choa has enjoyed her career in a variety of artistic pursuits spanning Hong Kong, Asia, UK and the USA. She was Resident Designer for Chung Ying Theatre Company before embarking on her freelance career in the performance and entertainment industry in the mid-80s. She worked extensively as set and costume designer, scenic artist, lighting designer and director in theatre; art director/decorator, costume designer/supervisor, and image director in television, advertising and film. She was also a display and exhibition designer for high-end fashion houses such as Tiffany & Co of New York and Hermes to name a few, presenter and writer of a classical music programme on television and editor for local architectural and fashion magazines.

Her work covered innumerable stage productions in the UK and HK, and film productions as well as television commercials in HK and abroad, and was nominated and awarded for her work.

She is regularly invited to participate and exhibit her work at theatre design exhibitions and conferences being an avid advocate of practice-as-research for the performing arts.

She is a devoted educator as well as an active contributor to the Hong Kong community, serving on university advisory committees, boards of charitable organisations, scholarship panels, and government vetting/advisory committees such as CreateHK, the Advisory Committee on Arts Development – Arts Education and the Human Resources Planning Commission. In 2018, she was able to secure a sizeable grant from the government to develop digital media technology in the School of Theatre and Entertainment Arts.

Prof Choa first joined the Theatre Design Department of the Academy in 1992 as Guest Lecturer and as full-time staff in 1996. She was appointed Dean of the School of Theatre and Entertainment Arts from 2013 to 2019. She is committed to her continued service to the Academy and working with her colleagues to realise her vision for the Academy in her current position of Director.