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Milagros Medina-Cerdeira. Photo by Sam Fine
MAKING FACES
Makeup artist Milagros Medina-Cerdeira helped create the look of some of Broadway’s biggest recent shows STORY BY
Keith Loria
W
As one of the most renowned makeup designers on Broadway, Milagros Medina-Cerdeira has created the looks for everyone from The Prom’s lovebirds, Emma and Alyssa, to Aladdin’s Genie of the Lamp, to the head mean girl of Mean Girls, Regina George.
Medina-Cerdeira, who was born and raised in Jackson Heights, Queens, NY, and graduated from Cathedral High School in Manhattan, first set foot on a Broadway stage back in 1994 when a friend asked her to cover for her one night on the show, Kiss of the Spider Woman, despite her never having worked theatrical makeup before. “I got the theatre bug-bite and was hooked,” she said. Prior to that opportune night, Medina-Cerdeira worked for some of the biggest cosmetic companies—including M.A.C., Shiseido and Clinique—and envisioned a career as a fashion makeup artist. “In high school I had always done makeup at the counters, and never really thought of it as a career,” she said. “But by college, I started assisting makeup artists within the industry and started getting the phone calls when someone needed help.
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