[1] Mitchell was born in Erith, Kent, and educated at Dartford Grammar School.
[2] He moved to Cornwall with his wife Sue Hill in 1988 and designed a number of Kneehigh's shows including Tristan and Yseult directed by Emma Rice, The Red Shoes, and A Matter of Life and Death.
In 2015, Mitchell worked with Lost Gardens of Heligan on a show called 100: The Day Our World Changed to commemorate local people who died in WW1.
[3] Mitchell was diagnosed with cancer in 2015, but continued to work up to his death on Wolf’s Child which was performed at Trelowarren Estate in Cornwall in July 2017.
Mitchell's attic has been recreated at Krowji, Redruth, as an artists resource space, in digital and physical form.