Elena Tilli is a video and media designer working in theatres and performances across Germany, Europe and the USA. She studied mechanical engineering in Florence and technical design at the Yale School of Drama.

After six years as an engine calibration engineer for companies like Fiat, Chrysler and Jaguar Land Rover, Elena transitioned to theatre. At Yale, she combined her technical knowledge with design, exploring the relationship between body and machine through perception, consciousness and poetry rather than technical power.

Since 2021, Elena has been living in Germany. She was a fellow at the Academie für Theater and Digitalität in 2021, developing AI-supported theatre design. In 2023, she collaborated on Codes of Absence, a documentary theatre piece about migration and family distance.

Her designs have been seen internationally at the Wuppertal Opera House (Thumbprint, 2025), the Nibelungen Festival in Worms (Brynhild, 2023) and the Kitchen Theatre in New York (The Sasquatch Rituals, 2018).

In 2026 she will design video, set and lights for Two Directors Sitting Still, premiering in Beijing.