Tanya McCallin has worked extensively in Europe, USA and Australia. She has been associated with premières of works by Arthur Miller, Pam Gems and Mike Leigh and productions of Chekhov, Sheridan and Shakespeare. After training at Central St Martin's School in London, she became resident designer with a number of British regional repertory companies. Jonathan Miller's production of The Barber of Seville (ENO) was her first major opera design.

In 2006 she worked with Francesca Zambello to design Carmen (ROH). Earlier that year she collaborated again with David McVicar for whom she designed Le nozze di Figaro (ROH; Valencia); Turn of the Screw (ENO); Macbeth (Mariinsky-Kirov; ROH; Kennedy Center; Metropolitan Opera); Manon (ENO; Chicago; Dallas; New Zealand; Houston; Barcelona); Les contes d'hoffman (Salzburg Festival).

She also designed sets for Semele (Théâtre des Champs-Elysées); costumes for Così fan tutte (Opéra National du Rhin Strasbourg; Scottish Opera), Rigoletto (ROH; BBC DVD) and Der Rosenkavalier (Scottish Opera; ENO). In the West End Dennis Potter's Sufficient Carbohydrate, Bodies, Exchange, Michael Frayn's translation of Uncle Vanya, Arthur Miller's Ride Down Mount Morgan. Productions designed for National Theatre include The Elephant Man, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, After the Fall.

She has also worked at Royal Court, Regent's Park Theatre, Donmar Warehouse, Chichester Festival Theatre with director James Kerr.