Starting her career with a BFA at East Carolina University, Carol Winstead Wood graduated with honors and a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Design from North Carolina State University’s School of Design.

Relocating to New York, Carol Art Directed for the award-winning multimedia company Jim Sant Andrea Productions based in Los Angeles and Manhattan. Carol’s talent & artistic vision raised the bar in the world of corporate theatre with such clients as American Express, Lexus, Nissan, Volvo, Cemex, GoDaddy, and IBM. While in New York, Carol lived and painted in New York’s Soho and landed her first show of paintings in the Prince Street Gallery.

Working on the East and West Coast, Carol gravitated to the film industry and joined the International Stage and Television Engineers (IATSE) union, Local 790 (Illustrators and Matte Artists), with her first feature gig as an illustrator on the feature film Touch and Go (1986). Working as an illustrator with renowned watercolorists in film, Carol honed her craft as an artist.

Now as a noted production designer, art director, and illustrator, Carol has more than 30 films under her belt, including 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), Beaches(1988), PrettyWoman (1990), Heat (1986), Backdraft (1991), Life Without Dick (2002), Prefontaine (1997), Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves! (1997), Mr. Saturday Night (1992), Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995). Working on Under Siege, Carol joined forces with Rail Transportation Management on film projects requiring railroads and rail equipment. Recent projects include Unstoppable (2010), Women of the Movement (2022), and White Noise (2022).

Her peers nominated her for a Production Design Award of Excellence for her design work on her Emmy nominee pilot for Seven Days (1998). On the heels of 911, Carol teamed up with Sony to design virtual environments with the U.S. Army’s interactive training. 

In addition to her Union affiliation in the IATSE Local 790 (Illustrator’s and Matte Artists) and Local 800 (Art Director’s Guild), Carol is a Director’s Guild of America Member in the Director’s category and a member of Hollywood’s Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

Returning to North Carolina, Carol taught Art Direction for Film as an Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina, School of the Arts while continuing her work in the film industry.