September 16, 2008

Roy Christopher, a California State University, Fresno alumnus (1957 and '61), won his 10th Emmy Award for his design of the 80th annual Academy Awards broadcast Feb. 24 on ABC.

Christopher, as production designer, and Joe Celli, the art director, were honored for Outstanding Art Direction for Variety, Music or Nonfiction programming during the Creative Arts Emmy Awards for technical achievement held on Sept. 13.

This year’s Oscar telecast wasn’t a sure thing until a TV writers strike was settled, so Christopher was uncertain his design would even be seen, and it had to be as adaptable as possible. He used classical columns updated with modernistic representations of Oscar statuettes whose look could be changed with architectural sleeves.

Christopher now has won eight of TV's most prestigious prizes and been nominated 18 times for designing the look of Oscar presentations. He has been nominated for 19 other Emmys, winning twice. His TV work has included the series "Frasier" and "Murphy Brown," and specials starring Carol Burnett, Mary Tyler Moore and Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Christopher's distinguished career was recognized with an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree, presented by the California State University at Fresno State's 2007 commencement.