I Am San Francisco: Nya Cruz | San Francisco Travel
Portrait of Nya Cruz on the couch.

I Am San Francisco:
Nya Cruz

Nya Cruz is a prominent member of San Francisco’s transgender community and celebrates the melting pot that keeps life interesting in SF.

As a child, the radio would flip on and the music would inspire Nya Cruz to dance her heart out in her living room. Today, she still feels her most free when there is music on and she can communicate through her movements, using dance to bring inspiration and entertainment to others.

Nya Cruz on the couch waving her hands.

I am Nya Cruz and I am San Francisco

You are always welcome.

At age 19, Nya began performing at AsiaSF, an iconic restaurant and performance venue where she became an icon among the world-famous transgender entertainers, the Ladies of SF. She describes her performance as a nightly celebration of human diversity, filled with food, music and dance. That diversity is what she appreciates most about her city.

As a prominent member of San Francisco’s transgender community, Nya has been featured in the two-season docu-series Transcendent, chronicling her personal and professional lives as she navigates the city as a transgender woman.

From climbing the beautiful hills in her Nob Hill neighborhood to her local coffee shop to walking the streets of the Tenderloin to her favorite Thai restaurant to soaking up the sun at Mission Dolores Park, Nya says the joy of living in San Francisco is in finding common ground and creating friendships among many different types of people.

San Francisco has always been a haven for people from different walks of life seeking a home that not only tolerates but also celebrates who they are. Nya says that this openness has created an exquisite melting pot—of people, of culture, of beauty—that cannot be found anywhere else.

Nya Cruz with coffee

Hear Nya in Her Own Words


The Golden Gate Bridge at sunset with a multicolored sky and the San Francisco Bay in the foreground.
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