Milena Cestao Kolbowski is a German-Spanish theatre maker, actress and performer who creates at the intersection of physical theatre, choreography, sound, contemporary mask play and performance art. She is also increasingly working in the fields of dramaturgy and cultural education. She grew up trilingually in Cologne, Milan and Madrid.

Her artistic work focuses on the humorous abstraction, defamiliarization and exhibition of phenomena and taboos. Her theatre works are mash-ups, compositions, distortions, plurilingualisms, imitations and targeted audience participations. She draws inspiration from pop culture, mainstream media, feminist art and theory, intercultural relations and Flinta* perspectives. In 2022, she completed her studies in Physical Theatre at the Folkwang University of the Arts.

Since then, she has worked as a performer and choreographer in productions at municipal theatres and in the independent Art scene including Schauspiel Düsseldorf, Theater Dortmund, Studio Trafique and with the Synthopians collective. She has also presented her own works at various festivals, such as the Hundertpro Festival 2022, Ruhrfestspiele 2023 and Teatri Riflessi 2023. In 2023 she was selected for West Off, a production platform for emerging artists in the NRW region, where she developed the performance AY PAPI AY MAMI in co-production with the FFT Düsseldorf.