Lorca Cohen was born in 1974 and is an American photographer, videographer, and antique dealer. She is widely known as the daughter of the late singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen.
Her name honors the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca, one of her father’s biggest influences.
Who is Lorca Cohen?
Lorca Cohen is an American photographer, videographer, and antique dealer based in Los Angeles. She grew up largely outside the public eye, even though her father became one of the most celebrated songwriters of his generation.
Her name carries deep meaning within the family.
Leonard Cohen named her after Federico García Lorca, telling an interviewer she was “a lovely creature, and very inventive,” and that she “really deserves the name.”
Lorca has spent much of her adult life working behind the scenes on projects tied to her father’s music and legacy.
She also co-owns an antique store in Los Angeles, a business she has run for years. In 2004, that same store became the starting point for uncovering a major financial scandal involving her father’s finances.
Lorca has largely avoided the spotlight compared to other children of famous musicians. She rarely gives interviews and has kept most of her personal life private, even as her father’s catalog grew more famous worldwide.
Her connection to her father runs deeper than most casual fans realize. Beyond curating art projects tied to his music, she has also stepped in to protect his financial legacy after his death in 2016.
Early Life of Lorca Cohen
Lorca Cohen was born in 1974 to Leonard Cohen and artist Suzanne Elrod. Her parents met in 1969 at a class connected to Scientology, the same year Leonard also met his future Zen teacher, Kyozan Joshu Sasaki.
Leonard was 35 at the time, while Suzanne was only 19.
Although Leonard referred to Suzanne as his wife, the two never formally married. They stopped living together in 1979, and Lorca was raised mainly by her mother from that point on.
Lorca grew up alongside her older brother, Adam Cohen, who later became a musician in his own right. The siblings often visited their father in New York City, Los Angeles, and Hydra, Greece, during their childhood.
Lorca Cohen Age
Lorca Cohen was born in 1974, though her exact birth date has not been publicly confirmed. That makes her either 51 or 52 years old as of 2026.
Court filings from December 2022 listed her age as 48 at that time, which lines up with a 1974 birth year.
Lorca Cohen Ethnicity and Nationality
Lorca Cohen holds American nationality and has lived most of her life in the United States. Through her father, she has Jewish heritage, as Leonard Cohen was a Canadian Jew raised in Montreal.
Her mother, Suzanne Elrod, contributed an artistic background to the family as well.
That mix of Jewish heritage and creative upbringing shaped much of Lorca’s early exposure to art, music, and photography.
Lorca Cohen Career
Lorca Cohen built her career around photography, video work, and antiques rather than performing herself. Her most public professional moments have come through projects connected to her father’s catalog.
Early Career
Lorca worked for years as a co-owner of an antique store in Los Angeles. That role placed her at the center of a major discovery in October 2004.
A disgruntled associate of her father’s financial advisor, Kelley Lynch, visited the store and urged Lorca to look into how Leonard’s finances were being handled. Lorca reviewed the accounts herself and found that Lynch had drained his bank accounts and sold off rights to his music.
That discovery eventually led to a lawsuit and a multimillion-dollar judgment against Lynch in 2006. Lorca also received a credit in the Art Department for the 2009 concert film Leonard Cohen: Live in London, according to her IMDb page.
New Skin for the Old Ceremony
On December 16, 2010, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles hosted a program of eleven commissioned art videos inspired by her father’s 1974 album, New Skin for the Old Ceremony. Lorca curated the event alongside Hammer programs coordinator Darin Klein.
Artists including Brent Green, Alex da Corte, Christian Holstad, and Peter Coffin each contributed a short film to the project.
The program later screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York on April 14, 2011. That screening extended the project’s reach well beyond its original Los Angeles debut.
Recent Work
Since 2022, Lorca has been closely involved in a legal dispute over her father’s estate. She and her brother Adam sued former Leonard Cohen manager Robert Kory that year, accusing him of forging trust documents to make himself sole trustee.
The siblings claimed Kory kept them uninformed about the estate’s finances despite their status as intended trustees.
In February 2025, Lorca and Adam filed a new lawsuit against the law firm Ervin Cohen and Jessup and former attorney Reeve Chudd. That suit alleged Chudd forged a page in Leonard’s trust documents and that Kory siphoned more than $18 million from the estate between 2018 and 2023.
The case sought more than $25 million in restitution. Despite the legal battle, reports indicate the siblings still do not control their father’s estate and instead receive a set annual distribution.
Leonard Cohen died in November 2016 at age 82, and his trust has managed royalties from his songs, thousands of his photographs, and his written work ever since. The dispute over who controls that trust has stretched on for years since his passing.
Lorca Cohen Husband
Lorca Cohen is unmarried and does not have a husband or boyfriend. She has never been reported to be publicly dating anyone.
Even so, she chose to become a parent through close friendships rather than romantic relationships.
She had her son with interior designer and longtime friend Cliff Fong. Her daughter came through an arrangement with childhood friend and singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright.
Lorca Cohen Children
Lorca has two children. Her daughter, Viva Katherine Wainwright Cohen, was born on February 2, 2011, in Los Angeles.
Rufus Wainwright is Viva’s father, though the two never had a romantic relationship.
Wainwright agreed to help Lorca conceive after a promise he made to his mother, singer Kate McGarrigle, while she was dying. McGarrigle passed away before Viva was born.
Lorca’s son, Lyon Cohen, came later through her friendship with interior designer Cliff Fong. She named him Lyon in honor of Leonard Cohen’s grandfather.
Lorca Cohen Net Worth
Lorca Cohen’s estimated net worth is $1 million as of 2026. Her income comes mainly from her work as a photographer and videographer, along with her antique business in Los Angeles.
That combination of creative work and retail has supported her for years, separate from her father’s estate.
The Bottom Line
Lorca Cohen curated the Hammer Museum’s New Skin for the Old Ceremony program in December 2010, later screened at the Museum of Modern Art in 2011. Her work as a photographer and videographer has run alongside her antique business in Los Angeles.
She was named after Federico García Lorca, an inspiration to her father, and chose to raise two children, Viva and Lyon, through close friendships rather than marriage.
Lorca and her brother Adam continue to pursue legal action over their father’s estate, with a new lawsuit filed in February 2025. We hope you enjoyed reading about Lorca Cohen. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!