Tahra Zafar, costume and effects designer

Mar 8, 2026

Tahra Zafar, a costume and creature effects designer who built stage Paddington and worked at Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, discusses puppet design, making Hedwig and Scabbers for Harry Potter, and managing 23,000 costumes for the London 2012 ceremonies. She also reflects on testing children’s characters with her daughter and the craft behind large-scale live and screen productions.

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ANECDOTE

Sir Duke Evokes Company While Working

Tahra chose Stevie Wonder's Sir Duke to evoke the feeling of being surrounded by people and party energy she would miss on the island.
She imagined listening while doing manual tasks like stripping bark or weaving to make a bed.

ANECDOTE

Using A Toddler As The First Audience Tester

Tahra involved her young daughter Zara as a test audience when developing In the Night Garden characters, using her reactions to judge what worked for toddlers.
Zara's age-appropriate responses helped refine characters like the Wottingers and Upsy Daisy.

INSIGHT

Puppet Making Is Soft Craft Plus Maths

Tahra highlighted that puppet and costume design balances softness with precise mathematics, electronics and mechanics.
She said getting proportions right and solving technical problems is the 'other brain' that excites her.

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Tahra Zafar is a costume and creature effects designer.

She designed the Paddington Bear puppet featured in the hit West End production Paddington: The Musical.

Born into a theatre family, she grew up with an Armenian American father who worked as a choreographer in the first West End production of West Side Story, and a mother who moved from a career as a ballerina to theatre work around the world. Her interest in making began early, helping her father with practical projects such as restoring their house, even learning to build walls and spending her spare time model making, with Airfix creations suspended from her bedroom ceiling.

After studying theatre design at Central Saint Martins, she began her career making theatre costumes. She spent some time at the Jim Henson creature workshop where she made some of the creatures for the first Harry Potter film including Hedwig the owl and Scabbers the rat.

After her daughter was born, Tahra worked on some of the characters for In the Night Garden with her daughter, a willing judge of what worked for toddlers. In 2012, Tahra was in charge of 23,000 costumes for the London 2012 Olympic opening and closing ceremonies. This role included an audience with the late Queen to ensure the wig and dress were correct for Her Majesty’s stunt double when that iconic skydive was performed at the Olympic opening ceremony.

Tahra lives in London with her daughter.

DISC ONE: Thunderbirds (Main Theme) - The Barry Gray Orchestra DISC TWO: Gee, Officer Krupke. Composed by Leonard Bernstein and performed by Leo Kharibian, Norman Furber and Vince Logan DISC THREE: Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 In D Minor (movement six) Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven and performed by Berlin Philharmoniker, Wiener Singverein and conducted by Herbert von Karajan DISC FOUR: Brazil – Geoff Muldaur DISC FIVE: Sir Duke - Stevie Wonder DISC SIX: Groove Is in the Heart - Deee-Lite DISC SEVEN: Eclipse - Pink Floyd DISC EIGHT: Take Five - Dave Brubeck BOOK CHOICE: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Complete Books by Douglas Adams LUXURY ITEM: A set of art materials and a storage box CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Eclipse - Pink Floyd

Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Sarah Taylor

Desert Island Discs has cast other costume designers away to the island over the years including Oscar winners Jenny Beavan and Sandy Powell. You can hear their programmes if you search through BBC Sounds or our own Desert Island Discs website.