Lia Chapman, aka, Lia Chapman Espinosa, was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in Manhattan. She began modeling at age 13. She combined school and modeling in New York until she moved to Madrid, Spain where she became one of the first black print and runway models working with top designers and photographers.

At the height of her modeling career she flirted with acting, appearing in Almodovar’s Matador and Fernando Trueba’s Se Infiel y No Mires con Quien. Buying fruit at the market, a casting director asked her if she would be interested in film.  A few days later, Lia was shooting next to French actor Feodor Alkine and Spanish actor Jorge Sanz in Continental, Xavier Villaverde’s directorial debut. Juan Carlos Corazza from Buenos Aires, Argentina, had just opened what soon became Spain's most esteemed acting studio where Lia studied alongside Javier Bardem, Elvira Minguez, Manuel Moron, Alicia Borrachero, Alberto Jimenez. Becoming her mentor, it was Corazza who chose Lia to play Maria in his directorial debut in Madrid in Cambio de Marea with his new company Pez Luna Teatro. Her next film project was Spanish cult director Jordi Grau's Tiempos Mejores as Lola-Lola. During filming she was cast as Zara opposite Marivel Verdu (Pan’s Labyrinth, Y Tu Mama También), Ana Risueno y Silvia Marzo,  on the series Canguros, becoming the first black face playing a leading role in Spanish television. Her popularity quickly snowballed into a role in Spain’s first TV Movie, Lucrecia directed by Mariano Barroso and to host a TV show with famed Spanish singer Alaska and the great magician Juan Tamariz. Wanting to take her work to the next level, after 52 episode of Canguros Lia made the jump to study and work in Los Angeles, where she studied with Larry Moss and Milton Katselas, and the legendary Uta Hagen.

She performed the one-act Lullaby Lady at the Beverly Hills Playhouse directed by Richard Lawson and critics raved "Lia...is mesmerizing” (Dramalogue), “Lia Chapman and Marcos Cuestas are magnificent specimens" (Daily Variety). Lia also appeared in Before Night Falls (dir. Julian Schnabel), Crazy in Alabama (dir. Antonio Banderas), In the Time of the Butterflies with Salma Hayek (dir. Mariano Barroso) and in the staged reading Haiti Children of God (dir. Andy Chapman) at the Mark Taper Forum.  Lia played opposite Cuban actor Jorge Perugorria (1995’s Academy Award Best Foreign Film nominee Strawberry and Chocolat) in the film Roble de Olor.  The film garnered Golden Globe notice and Variety compared Lia to a young Cicely Tyson due to her strong presence, dignity and elegance portraying Ursula, a free black Haitian woman in times of slavery during the 1800’s in Cuba.  Roble de OLor won Best Picture DIKALO AWARDS 2006 at the Pan Africain festival in Cannes.  Lia also made two films in Argentina with Mercedes Farriols, Olga Victoria Olga in 2006 and 432Uno in January 2009. She teamed up for the third time with Spanish director Mariano Barroso in Invisibles. This acclaimed documentary produced by actor Javier Bardem went on to win many awards including the prestigious GOYA (the Spanish equivalent to the Oscars) in 2008. Lia has remained in Madrid working constantly until May 2009 when she moved back to embrace a new home in Los Angeles, California.