Let’s get the work stuff out of the way: I was Head Writer of the Hulu series How To Be a Carioca and Creator of the hit Netflix series Invisible City (yep, US Top Ten!) alongside badass director Carlos Saldanha.

Right now, I’m writing a live-action feature for MGM/Amazon Studios through Viola Davis’s and Maurício Motta’s Ashé Ventures, plus an animated series for Disney+ based on an original idea (!!!). I’ve also developed a feature for Disney Animation and spent two years at Blue Sky Studios under an overall deal until the studio’s closure in 2021.

Cool credits, yes. But the “how” matters more to me than the “what.” So here’s the short version of how I ended up in Studio City, LA, typing this with my dog Alef snoring next to me.

In 2016, I wrote and directed a musical for 50,000 people a day at a rock festival in Lisbon. We opened for Bruce Springsteen, Queen, Maroon 5… wild, right? But during the last show, I realized something was missing—not on stage, but in my life.

Back in Brazil, I’d built a career: 17 plays, two blockbuster movies, five musicals, the Brazilian Ugly Betty, and the country’s top theater award. But all in Portuguese. I wanted a new challenge—in a new language.

So in 2017, I packed my life into two suitcases, moved to NYC without knowing a soul, taught musical theatre to kids in the Bronx, and wrote my first US play, The Ideal Obituary (Time Out). Then came Real (American Theatre Magazine), which led to two years as an in-house writer at Blue Sky Studios (Fox Animation).

When the studio closed, I stayed in NY a bit longer before moving to LA in June 2024. The biggest thing I’ve learned? Owning my Latin American identity as an artist—and writing from authenticity and love. Through storytelling, I’ve rewritten my life: beat depression, let go of drugs, and healed my relationships.

That’s what my work is about—whether for Hollywood studios or anyone who wants to learn.

I run an open-access Writers Club, give a free talk called Storysharing on turning personal experiences into fiction, and volunteer with the Go Project, tutoring underprivileged kids with learning disabilities since 2017.

Meanwhile, I keep writing and spreading the word: stories told with love don’t just describe reality—they create it.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, Alef wants his walk. :)