Hannah Lieberman isn’t your typical North Carolina-NYC transplant. She doesn’t have a Southern accent (except in Hebrew, since her Bat Mitzvah tutors were all from the Bible Belt); she grew up not with country music, but NPR blaring on the radio; and as for that sweet Southern disposition, she’s been known to drop a much-needed F bomb every so often. 

That said, the transition from her Liberal Arts undergrad bubble to the big city was a sizable one: Hannah gives off what she’s dubbed “resting innocent face”, and her unintentional aesthetic of an overwhelmed preschool art teacher makes her stick out a bit on the subway. But she encouraged herself knowing the move was inevitable- with a lifelong love of theatre fueling her (plus some hefty care packages from her mom), she knew instantly that New York would be her new home.

Hannah grew up surrounded by performance. Her grandfather, a concert pianist, introduced her to the show tunes she still absentmindedly hums to this day. Her father’s love language was making niche pop culture references, so Hannah’s childhood was filled with Mel Brooks movies, Bugs Bunny cartoons, and Caddyshack quotes. Her mother had her performing skits with her siblings, and she can’t remember a single dinner party where she wasn’t asked to harmonize with her sister. Amongst the passions garnered by her lively upbringing, Hannah developed a love of writing and creating her own work that would follow her into her adult life.

As an undergrad, Hannah initially resisted pursuing theatre, although everyone around her (including her political science advisor and her boss at the Federal Election Commission) seemed to understand that she needed to work towards a life in the arts before she did. Hannah finally admitted to herself that she wanted nothing more than to be on stage or in front of the camera when she studied abroad at the University of St Andrews and began performing standup, figuring if she sucked at it, she could simply leave the country. But a lack of shame and years of accruing embarrassing material made for the perfect self-deprecating sets. It was also in Scotland where Hannah composed, musically directed, and starred in her first full-length production, a parody of the terrible cult classic movie The Room.

Fueled by her newfound love of standup and writing musicals, Hannah returned to Davidson College when a class on contemporary female playwrights introduced her to the work of Lisa Kron. Hannah immediately fell in love with Kron’s biting humor and chose to write an honors thesis on solo theatrical performance as an influence on the American theatre canon, culminating in an original one-woman musical. Hysterical premiered in 2018 and detailed Hannah’s struggle with Ovarian cancer (her mother is a two-time survivor and she is a pre-vivor, as she has the BRCA-1 genetic mutation). The show used humor to break down an otherwise somber topic (something Hannah has been doing her whole life).

Following Hysterical’s success, Hannah moved to NYC to study in the Atlantic Theatre Company full-time conservatory. What started as dinner party showcases and sing-alongs with her grandpa was now a fully realized dream, complete with world-renowned actor training in the theatre capital of the world. When the pressures of working as a waitress and ghost tour guide, attending a demanding conservatory, and trying to maintain some semblance of a social life get to her, Hannah remembers why she wants to pursue an acting career in the first place: if laughter and honesty can soften the harshness of reality even a bit, it’s something worth pursuing.