Lili Bernard is a Cuban-born, Los Angeles-based visual artist and actor. She has exhibited her artwork in numerous galleries and institutions. Her work examines issues of trauma born of sexism and racism, past and present. As an actress and member of SAG/AFTRA, Lili guest-starred in the last season of Cosby Show (1984) as the zany and very pregnant Mrs. Minifield. On Seinfeld (1989) she played Kramer's Black girlfriend, Anna. She co-starred in the Stephen King CBS TV mini-series, Compte à rebours (1991), and played the female lead in the BBC film, Murder in Oakland, (i.e. _"Screenplay" (1991)_) opposite Ving Rhames and Eriq La Salle. In theatre, Lili has performed extensively in New York City, Off-Broadway, and in Los Angeles.
A mother of six children, to whom she gave birth in a ten year span, Lili is also a published writer and blogger for the Huffington Post. She has garnered critical acclaim as an independent curator, longtime arts activist and community organizer. Lili first created and ran HABLA (Harvesting Asian, Black, Latino Artists) in order to provide platforms for under-represented artists in Los Angeles. Realizing that Black artists were the most marginalized of the group, Lili then founded and organized BAILA (Black Artists in Los Angeles), a current movement aimed at building bridges of access for Black artists into the mainstream art world.
Lili graduated high school from the American School in Japan, where she spent 11th and 12th grade, and attended New Jersey public schools from kindergarten through tenth grade. She did her undergraduate studies at Cornell University and City University of New York, earning a B.A. in German. Lili received her MFA from Otis College of Art and Design in 2014 under the tutelage of professors Suzanne Lacy, Charles Gaines, Ulysses Jenkins and Andrea Bowers.
