Zsolt Khell was born in Budapest in 1954. After completing his high school studies, he continued his education at the Ybl Miklós College of Building and at the department of interior decoration at the Hungarian Academy of Applied Arts, graduating in 1981. He has been designing theatre sets since 1979 and doing visual design work on films since 1985. In addition to these, he also frequently does interior and graphic design work, in addition to designing posters and installations for exhibitions. He was a member of the Hevesi Sándor Theatre in Zalaegerszeg from 1984 until 1986, when he joined Kaposvar's Csiky Gergely Theatre as a designer. He has worked as a freelance designer since 2009. He has taken part in numerous joint and solo exhibitions, including at Budapest's Hall of Art, the House of Arts in Dunaújváros, the Prague Quadrennial and Canada's World Stage Design). He is a six-time winner of the National Theatre Festival's award for best set, and has also received the Theatre Critics' Award three times. He has also won the Mari Jászai Award (1994) and the Sándor Hevesi Award (2013), in addition to being named “set designer of the year” in 2012. He has worked in Helsinki (in 1989, 1993 and 1997), Dubrovnik (1990), Lyon (1992 and 1993), Mannheim (1991), Vienna (1995 and 1997), and has collaborated with such figures from the theatre world as János Mohácsi, László Babarczy, Tamás Ascher, János Szász and Yvette Bozsik.