---
title: LD Hannah Kerman Talks Lighting in the World of Television
description: LD Hannah Kerman talks about mentorship in the entertainment industry and her career in lighting for television and theatre.
---

[et cetera... a blog of bright ideas from ETC](https://blog.etcconnect.com)

# [LD Hannah Kerman Talks Lighting in the World of Television](https://blog.etcconnect.com/ld-hannah-kerman)

 Written by [Quinn Wirth](https://blog.etcconnect.com/author/quinn-buchanan) | Oct 23, 2026, 3:43:29 PM

ETC recently caught up with Lighting Director and Designer [Hannah Kerman](https://www.hannahkerman.com/) about her incredible career in lighting for television. The ETC team first met Kerman in 2020, when she was selected for the [Fred Foster Student Mentorship Program](https://www.etcconnect.com/studentmentorship/). Since then, she earned her degree from Carnegie Mellon University and leapt into the world of television lighting, working on productions such as Dancing With The Stars, The Oscars, The Grammy Awards, and the Golden Globes. Check out the Q&A below for Hannah's insights about lighting for television along with career highlights.

*Photo Credit: Ye Fan*

ETC: Can you describe some of your most recent projects and what you’re working on next?

KERMAN: I am currently working as a lighting director on Dancing With The Stars! In this position, I work under the designer, Noah Mitz of Full Flood, and I am the person from our team that’s on script. I call followspots, make the cue lists, break down music/rehearsal videos and keep the programmers updated with show changes as they arrive. I am essentially the stage manager for the lighting department. I am lucky enough to say this is my 5th season on this show! Dancing With The Stars started load-in back in August, so I’ve been working on it since then, and will continue through the season that ends in late November. Earlier this year I got to be a lighting director for The Oscars, The Grammy Awards , The Golden Globes, and America’s Got Talent Auditions, just to name a few. I feel so fortunate that I get to return to a lot of these shows that I work on annually.

ETC: What sparked your interest in a career in lighting?

KERMAN: I was lucky enough to attend a performing arts high school in Dallas, called Booker T. Washington. While there, we had opportunities to learn everything. From acting, to costume construction to playwriting, to directing, and of course, also lighting. I loved the lighting opportunities I was given, and really enjoyed dipping my toe in the technology of it all. I started teaching myself Vectorworks and drafted up the outdoor theater space in 3D because I wanted to challenge myself to learn all these new things. We also had a couple of ETC consoles that were another mystery I wanted to solve. There was so much at my disposal that I wanted to take advantage of, and so, in my senior year of high school, I started looking into universities that had lighting programs so I could try and make a career out of this interest I had. And sure enough, I’ve been able to keep doing lighting ever since!

ETC: I know you’ve been doing a lot of television work. Can you talk a little about how the experience in television production is different than theatre?

KERMAN: My niche in the television world is really not so different than that of the theatrical world! Most of the people I work with have degrees in theater/drama and stumbled their way over into TV. We use a lot of the same gear, and a lot of the shows I do are in theaters. The biggest difference between TV and theater is the audience. We design for television using the eye of the camera as our main point of view. Everything that we do is so heavily dependent on where cameras are placed, and what the camera is able to see. In theater, it’s only about what the audience in the room is able to see. In some ways, TV makes it easier to hide things from the audience at home than it would in a theater, but sometimes it makes it much, much harder. A lot of TV is done in shades of white light, which offers up challenges folks working in theater don’t have to deal with as much. We are constantly checking our key lights on a show, and making sure that the people we are lighting look as consistent as possible across various cameras and positions in the room. And one of my favorite parts about working in TV, is that people from around the world are able to see the show I’ve worked on!

ETC: What are some things that have surprised or excited you about working in television?

KERMAN: The biggest surprise to me, coming from my theatrical background, is how quickly we are able to get a show up and on your TV. Some of the biggest shows that I work on have the fastest rehearsals you’ve ever seen. Take Dancing With the Stars, each dance gets roughly 25 minutes of rehearsal the day before the show airs. Where theater has weeks of rehearsal and creative conversations, in TV, it feels like only seconds. Somehow, we manage to pull it off, because we have no other choice. We go live at a set time, and that is not going to move, so we have to think quickly and find creative solutions all the time! I love the fast paced approach we have in TV, it means I never get bored because there’s always the next act or the next show to think about.

ETC: Any favorite experiences in your career so far?

KERMAN: There have been so many amazing experiences, but I think my favorite has to be when our lighting team from the Grammy Awards was recognized by the Television Academy as the winner of Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction For A Special in 2025. It is such an honor to be recognized for our hard work in that way, and the whole experience of being able to attend an award show (after working on them my whole career!) is just incredible.

ETC: We are so glad to call you an alumna of the Fred Foster Student Mentorship Program. What did you take away from that experience? Do you have any other thoughts on how mentorship and networking play into this industry?

KERMAN: I took away so much from the Fred Foster Student Mentorship Program! The world was right in the middle of Covid, and ETC found a way to still make it an incredibly fulfilling experience. We had designers from all industries Zoom with us, and I think it really showed me the wide range of opportunities there are out there. Every speaker that presented to us was so kind and knowledgeable about their craft. I still to this day can thank the Fred Foster Program for introducing me to Jeff Ravitz, who I consider a mentor of mine. He’s one of the first people I reached out to when moving to LA, and I constantly think of his advice when I’m working.

ETC: Any other comments on the state of the industry or what you’re excited about?

KERMAN: In the same way the TV is fast-paced and constantly changing, so is the lighting world. There are always new technologies being created that push the boundaries of what we’re able to design, as well as new stories to tell and ways to present them. I’m excited to continue on in this career and see what’s next! 

[View full post](https://blog.etcconnect.com/ld-hannah-kerman)

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