Eleftheria Deko is a pioneer in lighting design in Greece, having designed over 600 performances for theater, music, dance, opera, events, and art installations. One of her most significant achievements was the lighting of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. For the Opening she was awarded an EMMY award for Outstanding Lighting Direction, making her the first Greek woman to receive this international distinction.
As a pioneer in theatrical lighting in Greece of the 90s, Eleftheria Deko influenced, taught, and changed the landscape of contemporary Greek theater, placing theatrical lighting on an equal footing with the other arts of theatrical performance. As a Lighting Designer, she has received excellent reviews and has won significant awards in Greece and internationally.
Her teaching career began in 1990 at New York University (NYU), where she taught Stage Lighting for two consecutive years. In 2005, she was elected as an associate professor of theatrical lighting at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in the Department of Theater of the School of Fine Arts, introducing for the first time at the Greek university the teaching of Theatrical lighting and creating the curriculum for 3 courses in the field of theatrical lighting during her 15-year tenure.
Her teaching also includes two years on architectural lighting at the Hellenic Open University.
In 2000, she started working in the field of architectural lighting and founded the Eleftheria Deko & Associates Lighting Studio. Since then, her team has designed the architectural lighting for over 200 projects, both public and private, receiving distinctions and international awards. Among them is the new lighting of the Acropolis, a project that has received worldwide recognition and awards such as the LIT 2021 for the best lighting project worldwide, 3 darc awards for the best of the best lighting. She has received LIT awards in 2018 and 2020, and the best entertainment lighting design worldwide LIT award in 2023 for Mystery 89, as well as MUSE awards, audience awards, LDA, etc.
She has been repeatedly invited and continues to give lectures and speeches at international conferences on theatrical and architectural lighting.
