Kalina Ivanov was born in Sofia, Bulgaria. In 1979, during the height of communism, she escaped with her parents and landed in New York. She graduated from NYU/TSOA Design Department with honors. Ivanov also has an MFA from NYU/TSOA Graduate Film School where she received a special award for her design and film work.

Kalina's design philosophy is to immerse herself in the script, fully embody the characters and reveal their history through color, texture and architecture in a visually original way. Ivanov most recently designed the upcoming film "The Boys In The Boat" directed by George Clooney, starring Joel Edgerton, Hadley Robinson and Callum Turner. This is the second period film Ivanov collaborated with director Clooney after "The Tender Bar" starring Ben Affleck, Tye Sheridan, Lily Rabe, and Christopher Lloyd.

Prior to that, Ivanov designed the award-winning HBO series "Lovecraft Country", created by Misha Green, and produced by Jordan Peele and JJ Abrams, for which she received her second Art Directors Guild Awards nomination. In addition, she earned a Primetime Emmy Award and Art Directors Guild Award for designing the HBO film "Grey Gardens", directed by Michael Sucsy.Most recently, Ivanov has lent her talents to the films "Wonder", directed by Stephen Chbosky; "Long Shot", directed by Jonathan Levine; and the Emmy-winning Netflix series "Seven Seconds", created by Veena Sud.

Her long collaboration with director Robert Redford culminated in designing the period film "The Conspirator". Her other notable films include the Oscar-nominated "Little Miss Sunshine", "The Vow", "Max", "Rabbit Hole", "The Book Of Henry", "Made Of Honor", "Brown Sugar", "The Best Man", "Smoke", and many others.

Her designs have been featured in prolific publications including Architectural Digest, Interiors, Perspective Magazine, and People Magazine.