Zea really came into her own, however, working with Jonathan Demme as production designer on "Married to the Mob" (1988). She created settings that ranged from a gaudy and garish look of a Lower East Side tenement to a candy-colored beauty parlor and worked in tandem with costume designer Colleen Atwood who designed the appropriately bright colored clothing. Zea continued to create impressive urban looks for the Martin Scorsese-directed "Life Lessons" segment of "New York Stories" (1989), Scorsese's gangster epic "GoodFellas" (1990), Demme's Oscar-winning thriller "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991) as well as his "Philadelphia" (1993) and "Beloved" (1998).
Zea has also begun a secondary career as a director, beginning with a Laurie Anderson music video. She helmed a 30-minute TV-movie, "A Domestic Dilemma" for HBO's "Women & Men II" (1991) and is developing a feature with Demme as producer.