Laurin Kelsey’s career in television production started at 16, as a student working on Stargate SG-1 — one of the shows that put Vancouver’s film industry on the map in the first place. Decades later, she’s the production designer behind the visual world of Elle, and the results are getting noticed.
Why production design is the job nobody thinks about
Actors get the headlines and directors get the awards-season profiles, but production designers are the ones who actually build the world a show lives in — every set, every colour palette, every detail dressing a room that tells you who a character is before they say a word. It’s a job that only gets noticed when it’s either spectacular or missing, which makes it one of the least appreciated crafts in the industry relative to how much it shapes what you’re actually watching.
Kelsey’s path into that role is a genuinely Vancouver story: getting hands-on set experience as a teenager on Stargate SG-1, at a time when the show was one of the backbone productions keeping Vancouver’s film and TV industry running. That kind of early access is part of why this city has produced so much below-the-line talent over the years — people who started as students on set and worked their way up into the roles actually shaping how a production looks.
What this says about Vancouver’s production talent
Vancouver’s reputation as “Hollywood North” usually gets talked about in terms of tax credits and soundstage square footage, not the actual people who make the industry function. A local production designer’s work getting singled out on a series like Elle is a reminder that the city’s film economy isn’t just infrastructure — it’s decades of specific, skilled careers built here, often starting exactly the way Kelsey’s did.
If you’ve ever wondered who’s actually responsible for a show looking the way it does, this is your reminder to look past the cast list.
