The Profile Awards have been created and are coordinated by Durham and Jennie Marenghi in association with the ABTT, the ALPD and the STLD; the Awards recognise lighting design excellence in Theatre and Television in the UK and the inaugural event took place at the Alexandra Palace Theatre on the 6^th of June 2024. The second event took place on the 5th of June 2025 and The Profile Awards return to the Alexandra Palace Theatre on the 4th of June 2026.

THE 2026 TELEVISION NOMINEES ARE NOW LISTED IN THE  TELEVISION SECTION!

THE 2026 THEATRE NOMINEES ARE NOW LISTED IN THE  THEATRE SECTION!

Alongside ten specific Theatre awards and eight TV awards there is the Richard Pilbrow Lifetime Recognition Award sponsored by Theatre Projects and the Brian Croft Behind the Scenes Award sponsored by PRG; there is also our Student Virtual Lighting Design competition sponsored this year by new sponsor CAST Group of Companies.

The Theatre Awards are judged by eight UK theatre critics and are not open to nominations whereas the Television Awards are judged by broadcast professionals and can be nominated by anyone and the deadline for the TV Awards nominations was the 31st of March 2026. The Awards trophies are Patt 23M fixtures on stands, a miniature LED version of the iconic Rank Strand Patt 23 profile fixture modelled and produced in limited amounts by Hugh Chinnick.

Sponsorship take-up has been incredible with all of the Awards now spoken for and with most taken again by our past two years sponsors. New for 2026 we welcome AED UK, Encore and MA Lighting as Theatre Award Sponsors, Avolites and Limelite Lighting as TV  Award Sponsors. TSL and AC Entertainment Technologies are both sponsoring TV Awards this year and Christie Lites, DTS and Litepanels join ER Productions as Entry sponsors.

Entry sponsorships are still available to access the event, contact jennie@profileawards.com for details.

In 2025 the TV Awards increased to eight categories and the Brian Croft Behind the Scenes Award was added. In 2026 the Headline Sponsor is once again Ayrton with the TV Awards being sponsored by AC Entertainment Technologies, Avolites, ChamSys, ELP Broadcast Lighting, Lights Control Rigging, Light Initiative, Limelite Lighting and TSL. The Theatre Awards have now increased to ten and are sponsored by AED UK, Chauvet Professional, Elation, Encore, ETC, Fix8 Group, GLP, MA Lighting, SLX and Vari-Lite and the pre-show drinks reception is once more sponsored by Ambersphere Solutions.

The Student Virtual Lighting Design Award entries are judged by the professional Profile Awards TV and Theatre nominees and the Virtual competition student nominees receive an invitation to The Profile Awards event with the winner being announced live at the Awards at Alexandra Palace on the 4th of June 2026.

The Profile Awards ceremony is an informal cabaret style seating affair, so no named seating at tables, which allows everyone maximum mingling! Out of the 250 people attending in 2025 half of our guests were lighting designers or lighting designer team members.

For further details use the links below.