Derrick Kardos, Graphic Designer on ‘Black Swan’ and ‘The Departed,’ Dies at 53

Derrick Kardos, a graphic designer on films including Jonathan Demme’s The Manchurian Candidate, Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, Ridley Scott’s American Gangster and Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, has died. He was 53.

Kardos died July 18 in Carteret, New Jersey, of complications from Long COVID, his family announced.

Kardos got his start in show business as an assistant for Christine Vachon, and the producer and founder of Killer Films wrote on Facebook that he “was a giant part of Killer’s roots and a wholly unique human being.”

He also was mentored by production designer Thérèse de Prez, with whom he collaborated on many movies, from Stonewall (1995), Arlington Road (1999), Summer of Sam (1999) and High Fidelity (2000) to How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003), American Splendor (2003), Black Swan (2010) and Premium Rush (2012).

(Kardos spoke with THR after de Prez died in December 2017 at age 52 following a battle with breast cancer.)

He, de Prez and the rest of the design team on Black Swan won an excellence in production design award from the Art Directors Guild. Kardos also was nominated for that prize for his work on Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011) and, in 2024, for the Peacock series Poker Face.

Born on Nov. 5, 1971, Derrick Michael Kardos attended Colonia High School in Woodbridge, New Jersey, and received his bachelor’s degree from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Under Vachon, he worked on New Queer Cinema indies like Rose Troche’s Go Fish (1994).

Kardos served as a production assistant on Postcards From America (1994) and the documentary The Celluloid Closet (1995) and as a casting assistant on Larry Clark’s Kids (1995) before progressing to art department roles and making the leap to graphic designer.

Demme was said to have admired Kardos’ proposed poster designs for the sets used on the rebooted Manchurian Candidate (2004). The designer also was instrumental in American Gangster (2007) landing an Oscar nomination for art direction.

His big-screen credits included School of Rock (2003), The Devil Wears Prada (2006), No Reservations (2007), I Am Legend (2007), Revolutionary Road (2008), The Lovely Bones (2009), Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010), Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011), Premium Rush (2012), The Many Saints of Newark (2021) and Cabrini (2024).

In addition to Poker Face, he also worked in television on The Sopranos, Red Oaks, The Good Cop and The Equalizer, among other shows.

Kardos created a persona known as The House of Diabolique, under which he founded an influential house music blog, released CDs and performed in clubs around the East Village.

As he struggled with Long COVID, he became an advocate for more aggressive medical research and treatment development and for formal recognition of Long COVID as a disability.

“To his friends, Derrick will be remembered for his fierce eccentricity, outrageous sense of humor and wit, unwavering loyalty and his passion for Madonna and Sinéad O’Connor,” his family said.

Survivors include his father, Paul; brothers Donald and David; sister Michelle; and his four Bengal cats, Cajmere, Disco, Pony Boy and Lightning. His mother, Maureen, predeceased him.

Donations in his memory can be made to the Long COVID Action Project.

Chris Gardner contributed to this report.