Ben Needham

Ben serves as the Academy’s Program Director as well as for the past 16 years has been the Academy's Resident Designer, overseeing the technical theatre and film aspects of the Academy.

Ben holds an MFA from the University of Georgia in Theatre Design and a BA from Case Western Reserve University in Theater Arts . He served as Adjunct Professor for the University of Georgia, Case Western Reserve University, Lakeland Community College, Lake Erie College, and Kent State University.

He is the Owner and Principal Designer of Digital Squirrel Studio (www.digitalsquirrel.net) a full-service animation, design and architectural illustration studio. He has designed over 900 theatre productions over the past 25 years. His film and television projects include set designer for Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, Kill the Irishman, Killing Lincoln, Killing Kennedy, Killing Reagan, ABC’s The Kingmakers, Meg Ryan’s Ithaca, Amazon’s Original Series Point of Honor, PBS’s Mercy Street and of AMC’s Turn: Washington’s Spies. Ben was most recently a set designer on the films The Outpost, Son of the South and the CW TV series Valor. He also is the co-owner of SHADOW OF THE RUN, a NEOhio based immersive theatre company.