Sophie Hayward is Melbourne based designer and all round creative nerd working across film, television, commercials, events, fashion and theatre. 

As well as having worked as a production and costume designer, she also has experience as a commercial art director, buyer, set dresser, prop and costume maker, set builder, on set standby, vehicles assistant, and most importantly, guinea pig wrangler.

With a BA in cinema history and screenwriting from La Trobe University and a BA Film and Television (Hons) from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2012, Sophie has gone on to forge a multidisciplinary career armed with a wealth of theoretical and practical film knowledge which she brings to each project.

As a Director, her honours film THE ZOO was selected for the MIFF Accelerator Program in 2013, Flickerfest, WoW Film Festival, and was screened on ABC’s The Screening Room and as well as featuring on iView in 2016 as part of a selection of the best films of Flickerfest. Her film KALEIDOSCOPE won the Film Finances Australasia ‘Under the Radar Award’ and she was awarded the VCA Margaret Lawrence Social Justice Scholarship for her film JOHN. In 2020 she was a recipient of a Melbourne Council arts grant and made the 5-part series PRAWN BITS with Oliver Coleman.

As a Designer, Sophie has been nominated for Australian Production Design Guild awards for her production designs on the Screen Australia supported short TANGLEWOOD and METAMUCIL TVC respectively. She costume designed the feature, THAT’S NOT ME, the children’s series THE LISTIES WORK FOR PEANUTS and in addition to her design work Sophie’s skills have been utilised on a range of long form projects including CLICKBAIT, TALKIN’ ‘BOUT YOUR GENERATION, UPGRADE, and most recently SAFE HOME.

Aside for film work, Sophie has also designed costumes for the RISING commissioned show ANYTHING & EVERYTHING by Platform Arts, taught film design at Swinburne University as part of the Advanced Diploma of Screen, and has made clothes for the local label Warmcore.

When she’s not on set, Sophie enjoys making custom and one-off pieces under her label Leslie Lizzard, drawing, painting, and writing short fiction.

For collaborations, please get in touch. I love a fun project!

s.c.hayward@gmail.com