Ming Cho Lee is a scenic designer best known for his work in Broadway and Off-Broadway theatre. From 1962 to 1973, he was the principal designer for the New York Shakespeare Festival. His Off-Broadway credits include: THE INFERNAL MACHINE (1958), THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (1962), KING LEAR (1962), MACBETH (1962), THE WINTER’S TALE (1963), OTHELLO (1964), CORIOLANUS (1965), TROILUS AND CRESSIDA (1965), HAIR (1967), HENRY IV,  PARTS 1 & 2 (1968), ROMEO AND JULIET (1968), PEER GYNT (1969), SAMBO (1969), THE CHRONICLES OF KING HENRY VI, PARTS 1 & 2 (1970), RICHARD III (1970), TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA (1971), THE TALE OF CYMBELINE (1971), HAMLET (1972), MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (1972), WEDDING BAND (1972), and THE SEAGULL (1975). For his Off-Broadway work he has won two Henry Hewes Design Awards for ELECTRA (1965) and ERGO (1968), as well as a 1995 Obie Award for Sustained Achievement.

Ming Cho Lee was born in Shanghai, China. He moved to the United States in 1949 and attended Occidental College. He moved to New York City in 1954 and began his career working for famed scenic designers Jo Mielziner and Boris Aronson. His Broadway credits include: Mother Courage and Her Children(1963), King Lear (1968), The Glass Menagerie (1975), for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf (1976), and The Shadow Box (1977). He has designed sets for theatre groups such as Arena Stage, the Mark Taper Forum, Guthrie Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Seattle Repertory Theatre, as well as for opera companies, including the Metropolitan Opera, and dance companies, including the American Ballet Theatre. He has taught design at the Yale School of Drama for 48 years, 34 of which he served as the chair or co-chair of the design department, and will retire after the fall semester of 2017. His numerous awards and distinctions include two Tony Awards: one for his work on K2 (1983) and a Special Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2013. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1998 and was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2002.