Last year Craig M. Housenick ’98, a lighting director for NBC’s popular singing competition The Voice, won his second Primetime Creative Arts Emmy. The Emmy recognized The Voice’s lighting team, led by Oscar Dominguez, for Outstanding Lighting Design and Lighting Direction for a Variety Series. They won the same award in 2013 and are nominated again in 2016.
“It is something that would have felt greedy to ask for once,” Housenick says. “To have received it twice is utterly astounding.” He finds the recognition provided by the Emmys particularly moving since the honor is determined by colleagues in the field.
In their efforts to continually produce top-notch work, The Voice’s lighting team consistently challenges itself. “Every season we feel like maybe the tank is empty, but every season, with the collaboration of our entire creative team, we manage to dig deep and find more inspiration,” Housenick says.
The team also faces the challenge of time limitations, but as Housenick says, “perhaps that very limitation is what allows us to make strong and bold choices.”
At Susquehanna, Housenick studied theatre and learned the ropes of artistic collaboration. “This collaborative spirit has carried me through my entire career and brought me into the wonderful team that puts together The Voice,” he says.
He also found Susquehanna to be an “amazing space to explore [his] creativity.” That creativity is an important factor in keeping things fresh on a show going into its 11th season.
In addition to The Voice, Housenick has worked on a number of other television shows, such as The Taste and Jimmy Kimmel Live. He has his own lighting/media design firm, CMH Design, which provides lighting and media design for live events in the television industry.
