Lu Sierra born Lu Celania Sierra was born in Hollywood, Florida,[1] She began modeling for Sachs Fifth Avenue at 12 years old. At 17, Sierra moved to New York[2] and was discovered by the Zoli modeling agency[1] then went on to work with modeling agencies Ford and Elite. At the age of 19 Sierra moved to Paris to become a print and runway model and joined the worldwide model agencies Marilyn Agency in Paris, Why Not in Italy, Mega Models in Germany and Tateoka Models in Japan. [2]
While being signed with the European agencies, Pierre Balmain was the first French designer to hire Sierra. After working with Pierre Belman, other designers, Givenchy, Yves Saint Laurent and Patrick Kelly hired Sierra as well. While in Europe, Sierra worked in Italy for Krizia, Fendi, Giorgio Armani and Fendi. Back in the US, Sierra became known as the “Bob Mackie Model” and worked for Bill Blass, Escada, Randolph Duke and Oscar de la Renta as well.[2][3][4]
Sierra’s modeling career transitioned her from runway and print to other career opportunities. Sierra trained and choreographed for Ford Supermodels International Model Search in Kosovo and Albania and was hired by New York modeling agencies to training their up and coming models.[2]
In 2008, Donald Trump hired Lu Sierra to choreograph the runway portion of Miss U.S.A. and Miss Universe pageants.[3] In 2012 Lu Sierra became the only runway coach to train the winners of Miss Teen USA, Miss USA and Miss Universe in a single year.
Lu Sierra worked for various networks and companies such BET’ Network’s “Rip The Runway”. Lu trained Pageant contestants and choreographed. As well as being a runway coach in China for the Toyota "Get Going Challenge" and yhe Miss China Universe Pageant. both Lebanon and the Cayman Islands. (CITATION)
Lu Sierra continues to model in New York and Germany in addition to her coaching and motivational seminars at junior high and high schools around the United States.
Sierra's television appearances include “David Letterman Show” as one of the Letterman Girls. She has also been featured on such reality shows such as MTV’ Network’s “Made” and “Keeping up with the Kardashians” Lu has appeared on various TV commercials, theater productions and a number of films, including “Stepmom” and "The Devil Wears Prada" She also appears in the coffee table book, “Skin Deep,” by Barbara Summers.