Alex Peña: Mexican Production Designer on the Rise in Hollywood

Alex Peña, a Mexican production designer who grew up between San Miguel de Allende and Mexico City, is making his mark in Hollywood with recent work in film and series for Netflix and Apple TV+. After studying architecture at Universidad Iberoamericana, he completed a diploma in Design and Art Direction at UNAM's film school in 2021, then pursued a master's in Production Design for Theater and Film at New York University. His debut feature as production designer, 'Chronovisor' (2026), directed by Kevin Walker and Jack Auen, premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in January and later screened at MoMA as part of New Directors/New Films. The film follows a French academic obsessed with a Benedictine monk's claim of seeing Christ's crucifixion through a time-viewing device. Peña recently finished work on the Netflix series 'Unaccustomed Earth' about the Indian-American community in Cambridge, Massachusetts, starring Frieda Pinto. He is now preparing to join the art department for the third season of Apple TV+'s acclaimed series 'Severance'. Peña admires Canadian production designers Craig Lathrop (collaborator of Robert Eggers on 'The Witch' and 'Nosferatu') and Patrice Vermette (known for Denis Villeneuve's 'Dune' films). He emphasizes that production design creates the visual world of a film through collaboration among director, cinematographer, and production designer, and must serve the story.