Background
The son of news anchor and journalist Robert MacNeil, he became interested in design at an early age, playing with toy theaters and creating puppet shows with his sister in their yard.
The son of news anchor and journalist Robert MacNeil, he became interested in design at an early age, playing with toy theaters and creating puppet shows with his sister in their yard.
MacNeil graduated from Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut in 1980 and studied at the Croydon School of Art and later with Ming Cho Lee in New York City.
"I still remember the pleasure I took in creating those little worlds - complete environments with characters I could manipulate," he recalled in a 1995 interview. He spent a decade designing productions in Birmingham, Worcester, York, and Manchester before moving to London, where he made his West End debut with Death and the Maiden in 1991. MacNeil has designed for many London venues, including the National Theatre, the English National Opera, the Almeida Theatre, the Young Vic, the Lyric Hammersmith, the Barbican Theatre, and the Royal Court Theatre.
In 1999, MacNeil staged the international tour of the Pet Shop Boys promoting the release of their album Nightlife.