Belén Cusi was born in Houston, Texas, but moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina with her family when she was young. Both her parents are Argentinian. Cusi started grade school in Buenos Aires and was also first introduced to the piano there - her late great-grandfather was a renowned classical pianist in Europe whose piano remained inside her's grandmother's home, where she spent a great deal of time growing up. 

“If you ask me where I'm from, I don't really know. If you look at time spent, I guess you could say I'm equal parts Texas, Boston, New York — but I feel undeniably Argentinian and have gone back every year since we left. All my extended family is there. My soul understands itself best in Spanish. So. Where am I from? Who's to say. I think I prefer to think more about where I'm going”.

By the time Cusi was seven, her family had returned to the U.S., settling in San Antonio, Texas. Once there, she took up piano lessons, which she would continue until leaving for college. While growing up she also practiced karate, earning her junior black belt at 11 years old, and played varsity basketball in high school.

Cusi left Texas at 18 years old to attend Boston University, where she received a B.S. in Journalism and Minor in Spanish Literature. This included a semester-long program at the University of San Andrés in Buenos Aires. She speaks fluent Spanish and English.

Also during this time, Cusi completed two years of full-time, private music study in composition, songwriting, jazz and classical piano during a leave of absence from her college studies, which she initially took in order to explore music as a possible career path.

Cusi initially started her acting career after being laid off from a corporate job as a brand rep in 2015. Having recently re-ignited her singer-songwriter career and signed with a local modeling agency — following several years of post-college work at a startup and various other companies — she decided to get headshots and see what might come of it. Uninterested in getting another desk job, she decided instead to waitress and pursue commercials to support her music career. This quickly led to her first national commercial and a supporting role as a determined student journalist in the German TV film Matter of the Heart (2017). A string of other supporting roles in followed, including Dear Brother (2017) and Sort of Best Friends (2018), where she garnered praise for her performances.

Meanwhile, Cusi's music career continued growing as she recorded an EP with Latin Grammy-winning producer Cheo Pardo in New York City. Her first single "Closer" was released in 2018 by OneRPM with an accompanying music video, which Cusi executive produced. She released a second single, "Estrella Fugaz" in 2019, partnering with director Taty del Fuego and a female-led crew. Cusi funded her music project through paid singing gigs in Boston & New York City, giving piano and voice lessons to kids, and her commercial acting work, which continued thriving back in New England.

By now, Cusi had also worked on Rian Johnson's murder mystery hit, Knives Out (2019), as Ana de Armas' stand-in, offering her a crash course in movie-making and whetting her appetite for film & television acting. She formalized her craft by completing the two-year professional actor program rooted in Meisner technique at Maggie Flanigan Studio in New York City, where her performances as Edna in the Clifford Odets play "Waiting for Lefty" and Barbara in Jason Miller's "Lou Gehrig Did Not Die of Cancer" earned her praise among her peers. She also surprised colleagues with her refreshing portrayal of an off-beat prop comedian in the pilot presentation “ConTEMPt,” a finalist at the 2019 Houston Comedy Film Festival. Directed by Jason Margaca, “ConTEMPt” follows an out of vogue comedian, played by real-life comedian Paul Nardizzi, who finds an unlikely friend in Cusi’s quirky character, Karyn.

During this time, Cusi was also working as a publicist for a New York City architecture PR firm and was still performing monthly music shows at Club Groove, a West Village haunt for live soul & R&B music. The 2020 Covid pandemic forced her to hit pause on her music performances, but she continued her acting studies and PR work remotely.

In early 2021, with no viable way to revive her music career in a post-covid world and with acting becoming a growing passion — alongside a desire to "attain mastery and peak performance in one field” — she decided to quit her PR job and all extracurriculars and make acting her sole focus.

This cleared the way for her to spend three months on the set of The Gray Man (2022), helmed by Ryan Gosling and directed by Anthony and Joe Russo (Captain America, Extraction), once again as Ana de Armas' stand-in. This experience solidified her intent to pursue acting, her passion for action roles, and the desire to one day work with filmmakers at the top of their game.

Cusi credits seeing Mexican actress Kate del Castillo perform in the 2019 one-person off-Broadway play "The Way She Spoke,” by Isaac Gomez, as inspiring her to take her acting career seriously. She also cites Cate Blanchett and Frances McDormand as influences and models for her work.

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In between music and acting gigs, Cusi has also served as producer on several unscripted and branded projects throughout the years, including the short film Ghost Fleet VR (2019), a 2019 Sundance Film Festival Select that takes a harrowing look at slavery in the Thai fishing industry.

She also helped coordinate a 2022 social media campaign for French cognac brand Rémy Martin with LatinX creators Joanna Hausmann and Angelo Colina, and served as a producer for various video productions at the 2023 Latin American Music Conference in New York City, featuring artists like Yamie Safdie, Elena Rose, J Noa and Black Guayaba.

Up next, Cusi can be seen playing Chloe Avila, a tough but loving third-generation Cuban farmer and mom trying to keep her family's orange grove alive, in the upcoming fantasy film Mother Nature & The Doomsday Prepper. The film, starring Mickey Rourke, follows Mother Nature as she descends from Mount Olympus to modern-day Florida to convince a doomsday prepper to have more faith in humanity and Earth's future. It is set for a 2025 release date.

She is also developing several projects, including a short film that follows an aspiring classical pianist in her search for meaning and connection, inspired by her great-grandfather and the Argentinian classical pianist Martha Argerich.

As an artist and emerging actress, Cusi's story is a generational one that speaks to the millions of second-generation Americans who have grown up between cultures, between countries, and - most of all - between personal identities. She aims to build a global platform that inspires people around the world to pursue art as a means of self-discovery and tell stories that move generations forward.

Written by Kel Edwards.
For press inquiries, contact kedwards@doka-pr.com.