Since its debut on Apple TV+, “The Studio” has emerged as one of the year’s most acclaimed comedies. Equal parts industry satire and affectionate tribute, the show offers a sharp yet sincere look at the machinery of modern Hollywood. Created by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the series follows Continental Studios, a once-powerful production house struggling to regain its cultural relevance. Rogen stars as Matt Remick, the new head of the studio who’s torn between artistic ambition and corporate demands. Catherine O’Hara plays Patty Leigh, Matt’s eccentric predecessor and mentor, while Ike Barinholtz plays Sal Saperstein, the fast-talking VP of production and Matt’s longtime friend. Chase Sui Wonders plays Quinn Hackett, Matt’s former assistant turned junior executive, and Kathryn Hahn rounds out the leadership team as Maya Mason, the irreverently stylish head of marketing.
The show cycles through a range of visual styles and tone shifts, anchored by appearances from Olivia Wilde, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Greta Lee, Sarah Polley, and Zoë Kravitz. Through it all, “The Studio” holds together with surprising clarity—held in place by the unifying vision of production designer Julie Berghoff. Known for her work on “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Get Out,” and “The Green Knight,” Berghoff brings a layered approach to visual storytelling that elevates every frame. With “The Studio,” she helped construct a world that feels both steeped in Hollywood history and alive with contemporary energy.
Much of the show’s visual identity is anchored in Continental Studios itself, with Berghoff and her team developing an elaborate fictional history for the lot. Drawing from the early days of studios like Warner Bros. and Paramount, the design imbues Continental with a mythology that gives the space weight and personality. “We had to establish the studio itself as a character,” Berghoff explains. “But it was also about building a world that felt like old Hollywood still echoing through the present.” Earth tones, vintage props, and classic lighting rigs sit comfortably alongside smartphones, laptops, and designer streetwear—blending nostalgia and modernity without ever feeling forced.
That blend is especially evident in the standout episode “The Oner,” which unfolds almost entirely inside the Silver Top House overlooking the Silver Lake reservoir. Designed by architect John Lautner, the home lends a sculptural intensity to an already ambitious one-take sequence. In another episode, Berghoff and her team constructed a fully immersive Chinatown noir set—complete with hand-painted murals, layered neon, and no VFX. “Everything was done in-camera,” she says. “That was really exciting.”
Even the Warner Bros. backlot becomes a kind of living set. With tight windows for access, Berghoff and her team would scout locations on golf carts with Rogen, Goldberg, and director Adam Weissman—dressing entire sections of the lot in under two hours. Gladiator props, Christmas trees, and rolling wardrobe carts helped evoke the frenzied, overlapping productions of a bygone studio era. “We wanted every corner to tell a story,” Berghoff says.
Julie Berghoff spoke to Awards Focus about the architectural inspirations that shaped the look of the series, the joy of designing across such a wide tonal palette, and how collaborating with Rogen and Goldberg made “The Studio” one of the most creatively fulfilling experiences of her career.
Awards Focus: First of all, congratulations on “The Studio.” The show has been phenomenal to watch. As our name suggests, we think a lot about awards season, and it just feels like every department on “The Studio” did such an amazing job. It’s going to be in the conversation for sure.
Julie Berghoff: Thank you. I’m so glad you’re loving it. It was so much fun to work on. There was such great camaraderie, and it shows—every department was super connected. I feel like that’s what makes a show so seamless and rich, like ours.
AF: Let’s start with the visual identity of the show itself. How was that pitched to you, and what was the aesthetic that Seth and the team were going for?
Berghoff: For me, it’s always a progression. We get the script, read it, and then we have our first meeting—pitching ideas back and forth. It’s a process of finding the voice of the characters. What do they look like? We’re visual storytellers. What does the studio look like? How old is it? We had to establish the studio itself—Continental Studios—as a character.
Seth and Evan really wanted it to be rooted in Hollywood and feel like it was built in the Golden Age. So that’s where I started. I researched the original five studios—what they looked like, how they were born, who influenced them. We developed our own studio mythology, like our own version of Warner Brothers.
AF: Once that foundation was in place, how did you approach the architecture and design language?
Berghoff: I love doing that—creating a backstory that’s rooted and has its own history, even if no one watching hears about it. It gives the space identity. I also knew the backlot would be super important. I started looking at architecture, and Frank Lloyd Wright became a clear influence early on. He was in LA during that era, building things like the Hollyhock House and Ennis House. We wanted something monolithic, temple-like. So we leaned into his Mayan period.
I did a deep dive into all of his work—prairie houses, Usonian houses. I’m from Chicago, so I grew up with his early work. And when I came out here, I started to see what he and his son built in LA. I think Frank and John Lautner influenced the look the most. That was the big challenge—developing the look of the studio, but also creating decades of posters and history.
Seth and Evan gave me direction—they wanted it to feel like the studio was known for screwball comedies in its early days. So I did a deep dive into posters from every decade. That’s how the mural on the back wall came together. I watched Buster Keaton, Lucille Ball, all the screwball stuff. We even created fictional actors and directors for Continental Studios. Most of that doesn’t show up on screen, but it was all part of the process.
AF: That spawns two questions for me. First, the backlot—was that an actual backlot or something built for the show? And second, there’s a lot going on visually: Christmas movies, gladiators, various sets. How much of that was staged versus found on location?
Berghoff: Everything was deliberate. We wanted every corner of that lot to tell a story. And we didn’t take anything for granted.
AF: Were you sourcing from studio archives, or building from scratch?
Berghoff: That’s the beauty of filming in LA—you have access to incredible resources. Warner Bros. has an extensive lighting department, for example. A lot of the 1920s lights in Continental’s offices came from them. And then as a team—costumes, hair, makeup—we’d ask, “What’s available in abundance?” Gladiators? Christmas? What big props could we find?
Sometimes we’d have two hours to dress a space. We’d be in front of a stage being used for “Shrinking,” for example, and they’d kindly move a truck so we could throw in Christmas trees.
We’d scout the lot with Seth, Evan, and Adam on golf carts, planning how to film and in what direction. All those details—the animals, the movement—they really helped it feel alive, like there were multiple shows happening at once. That’s what old Hollywood looked like—wardrobe carts rolling by, animals wandering through the lot.
AF: There are a lot of long takes throughout the series—most notably in episode two, “The Oner,” but it’s consistent across the season. How did that affect production design? Did that create specific challenges?
Berghoff: Oh, 100%.
When we were designing the executive offices, Seth told me early on he really wanted to do oners. He wanted the camera to always be moving. He said, “Give me lots of things to do—different coffee setups, different ways to move.”
If you’ve seen Seth in real life, he’s either smoking a joint or drinking coffee, so that made sense! We designed his office with a wet bar—but for modern day, that meant an espresso machine instead of bourbon. The chess game was another visual idea—something they’d maybe do but never actually have time for.
Awards Focus: So you were building not just for visuals, but for performance and movement?
Berghoff: Exactly. We made all the glass pivot. We flew walls. We talked about key scenes early in the process and shaped the office design to support those moves. Making the center open allowed for crane moves and camera handoffs.
Another influence—Seth and Evan mentioned that when they’d go to meetings with CEOs, they’d wait in a lobby below while someone intimidating leaned over a railing. I built that idea into the office layout to make people feel vulnerable when waiting. Those are little details that shaped design in big ways.
AF: Where is the house featured in “The Oner” episode? That’s a pretty spectacular location.
Berghoff: That’s the Silver Top House—on top of Silver Lake, overlooking the reservoir. It’s the Ryner House, designed by John Lautner. It’s his first major use of monolithic concrete as both sculpture and architecture.
Filming there was tough—everything’s glass, so Adam had to control light carefully. That’s why we filmed up there for four days, at the same time each day. LA weather helped.
AF: And what about Patti’s house? It had a very distinct look as well.
Berghoff: Patti’s house, the other Lautner home, is the Harvey House. It was built by an aluminum magnate. These were the kinds of people who built America—industrialists and engineers—and they built homes that reflected that vision. We needed homes that felt like the characters lived in them even if they rarely showed up.
AF: It’s clear the show is loaded with texture. As a team, how did you balance the meta-Hollywood nature of the show with a broader audience? Were you ever concerned it would feel too “inside baseball”?
Berghoff: Honestly, I don’t think we thought about the broader audience much. I’m focused on developing the characters and the world.
That said, we did realize we had a nostalgic palette—earth tones, vintage cars. People watching the trailer thought it was a period piece. But it’s not—it’s modern day.
AF: Was that intentional, to blur the line between eras?
Berghoff: The aesthetic leans into architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, who used earth tones and worked with nature. We layered in influences like “Taxi Driver” for one of our fake films, studying the color palette and design of 1970s posters. It’s a love letter to Hollywood, really. Seth and Evan’s favorite films were constant reference points.
But we also grounded it. Kathryn Hahn’s wardrobe was very hip-hop, very modern. We had laptops, smartphones, and little details to root it in the present. Hopefully it all balances.
AF: Speaking of favorites—one of my favorite sets was from Episode 4 “The Missing Reel” featuring Olivia Wilde. Can you talk about that set and what you referenced?
Berghoff: That one was so fun! We referenced Chinatown, of course, but aesthetically it’s a small, neon-lit world. I wanted to ask, “What would a full Chinatown noir set look like?”
So I went big. I looked at Beijing alleyways, hired a graphic designer fluent in Chinese to get the calligraphy right. We didn’t want any of those tattoo-parlor mix-ups from the ’90s.
AF: What was the build process like for that set?
Berghoff: We created a mahjong parlor inside a white box of a space. To save budget, we printed Chinese opera posters as wallpaper and covered everything. Outside, we built in signage, lit it properly, and used techniques from old Hollywood—like trompe l’oeil painting—to trick the eye into thinking it was all real architecture.
We didn’t use VFX. Everything was in-camera. That was really exciting.
AF: It sounds like you had a blast. You’ve been part of massive projects like “Get Out” and “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Where does “The Studio” rank in terms of how much creative freedom and joy it gave you?
Berghoff: I was thinking about that recently. I’ve done zombies with Zack Snyder. I’ve done dark drama. But this… this was one of the most creative projects I’ve worked on.
AF: What made it feel different?
Berghoff: Whether it was the 1970s Hollywood cabin, the Charles Bronson vibe, the Ron Howard sequences—we did it all. Seth and Evan were open to everything. Sometimes they even wrote around sets I proposed. That level of collaboration is rare. It was special.
AF: One last question—if someone made a movie about Kool-Aid, what director would actually get you to want to see it?
Berghoff: Oh, definitely Guillermo del Toro.
AF: A horror Kool-Aid movie?
Berghoff: Exactly! That’s my thing—creative, outside-the-box. Guillermo would make it weird and beautiful. Or honestly, I love the Mexican directors right now—Guillermo, Iñárritu, Cuarón. Any of them could pull it off.
AF: Thank you again for your time. This was such a fun and insightful conversation. Congratulations on the show.
Berghoff: Thank you so much!