The story of Lian Cenzano
From Cuba
to New York.
From a famous television host and theater actor in Cuba to a hairstylist in Miami and New York, my life has moved through several professions. Later, I returned to school and became a mental health therapist.
A life in motion
From the stage
to the listening room.
Follow the places and professions that brought me here. Scroll to move through the story.
01 / Calle 6
Where my story
begins.
Born in Santiago de Cuba, raised in Havana. The house on Calle 6 became the first place I would return to when I began telling my story.
01 / Santiago de Cuba & Havana
The house on Calle 6.
I was born in Santiago de Cuba. My family moved to Havana when I was five, and the house on Calle 6 is where my story of growing up begins.
Years later, when I began writing The Island on My Chest, I returned to that house on the page. It gave me somewhere to begin telling the story of what I carried with me when I left Cuba.
02 / Havana
Stage and screen.
I started doing children’s theater at eight and later studied theater at an art school in Havana. I went on to become a famous television host and theater actor in Cuba.
Performance taught me to notice the pauses, gestures, and changes in a voice that can shift a whole scene. Years later, I carried that attention into my work behind the chair—and eventually into counseling.
03 / Miami
A life behind the chair.
After leaving Cuba, I made my way to the United States through Mexico. In Miami, I trained as a hairstylist and eventually opened my own salon.
Behind the chair, I learned a craft that depended on listening as much as technique. People told me what they wanted to see in the mirror. As we got to know each other, they often told me what was happening in their lives, too.
04 / New York City
A second calling.
In New York, I built a successful hairstyling career at Chris Chase Salon and returned to school. I studied psychology of addiction at Purdue Global, then earned my master’s in clinical mental health counseling at Northwestern University.
Today, I work as a hairstylist and a professional mental health therapist. My Northwestern capstone explored how stylists can respond with care when someone opens up and connect them with support beyond the salon.
These are separate professions. If we work together, we establish one professional relationship—counseling or hairstyling—and keep our work within that role.