If you look up Linedy Genao, you’ll find many versions of the same—albeit incredible—story. The 32-year-old had given up acting professionally when a friend’s mom told her about an open call for Broadway’s On Your Feet! By that point a banker with no up-to-date audition materials, Genao printed out a selfie to use as a headshot—and booked the role.
Every time she tells it, the story’s ending changes—and this one is a cliffhanger. After she’d spent four months originating the titular role in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Bad Cinderella, the Broadway show closed, leaving Genao to wonder when her next gig will come. She’s not sure, but she knows what it’ll take to get there.
A sense of hope.
When Genao didn’t get into the performing-arts colleges she wanted to attend, part of her assumed she wasn’t good enough, but the other part discarded that make-or-break attitude. “I always knew that you didn’t have to go to school to pursue acting,” she says. “I could still fulfill that part of my soul in my community through the arts. That’s when I joined the community theater and the community chorus in my town.”
Genao describes herself as a sponge, who soaks in everything her creative peers can teach her. “Everything I know now is because of the people I’ve been surrounded with and work with,” she says. In Bad Cinderella, she shared the stage with acting veterans—one of whom has a degree in business administration (just like her) and a resume that’s 16 shows long.
With the support of her friends and family, Genao decided banking was a “safe” choice, but never stopped believing in her big break. “Deep down, I knew it was going to happen someday,” she says. “I just kept telling myself, ‘When it’s meant to be, it will be. It’s going to happen. I don’t know when, but it will.'” The voice inside Genao told her to keep up with vocal lessons, doing community theater, and growing in the arts—which she did while living with her grandmother in Brooklyn from Monday to Friday to be closer to the bank, and commuting home to Connecticut each weekend.
The ability to let go.
Before her sudden audition, Genao experienced a case of imposter syndrome. “I just thought, ‘Look at this girl. She sounds better than me. Look at her. She looks better than me.'” And her self-doubt kicked into overdrive: “‘What am I doing here? They’re never going to pick me.'”
Then she started singing. And as soon as she began, doubt made way for discovery. Genao recalls a “wave of confidence” overtaking her: “I was just like, ‘Let me ground myself and show them who I am.'” Once she found the ability to let go of who she thought they wanted her to be, and instead show them who she was, she landed that show and more. The actress went on to star in regional theater productions and films, and book national tours.
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Endless gratitude.
Genao likens her career to “being shot out of a cannon,” which is how she knows how quickly things can change. “This could all go away like this,” the actress says, snapping her fingers. “If I lose my voice, if I get hurt…. There are 50,000 other girls that are more qualified than I am, who are in dance class every day, who are in acting class every day. So I just continue to remind myself that I’ve worked hard to get here, and to be present.”
Bad Cinderella ended its run in June, earlier than she had hoped, but Genao is forever thankful for the experience. “I am so grateful for all of the opportunities this show has provided me,” she says. “To have done all of these interviews, to have sung with such talented actors, to have collaborated on a brand new song for the show…. All of these things are so much bigger than anything that I ever imagined.”
She’ll keep practicing her craft to satisfy the “the hunger and the fulfillment” of her soul, just as she did years ago in her community. A staunch believer in fate and in herself, Genao knows something great is on the horizon. “I’m going to continue on this route, and when it’s meant to be, it will be.
Photography by Zackery Michael; Art Direction by Michael Sarpy; Creative Production by Hannah Miller; Talent by Jennifer McLawhorn; Styled by Sarah Slutsky Tooley; Hair by Xavier Velasquez; Makeup by Tracy Alfajora
Rebecca Strassberg
Becca Strassberg is a writer, editor, and Brooklyn native. She has been the Senior Lifestyle Editor at HearstMade since September 2021. Most importantly, her dog’s name is Brisket.
