LESLIE LURA-SMITH is a New York City based lighting designer working primarily in theatre and dance. She regularly designs with Pan Asian Repertory,Post Theatre Company, and is the resident lighting designer for Nunnbetter Dance Theatre. Leslie has also collaborated as associate lighting designer at Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center Theatre, Pearl Theatre Co., and NationalYiddish Theatre Folksbeine; and toured internationally with Imago Theatre.

In addition to live performance, Leslie often designs for flagship window displays, including Ralph Lauren, and assisted with Tiffany and Co. She teaches lighting design and stagecraft at The Juilliard School Dance Division, where she has been adjunct faculty at Juilliard since 2017, and is now designing for dance in the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre. 

Leslie earned her B.A. in English from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, OR; and her M.F.A in Design for Stage and Film from NYU Tisch School of the Arts in 2014. There she received the J.S. Seidman Award for Design Excellence and the Oliver SmithScholarship.