Hey, I’m Lelo. I’m a Brazilian filmmaker and actor currently based in Turin, Italy. The world around me always made more sense through stories, which motivated me to tell stories myself using moving images. Usually, my stories are weird ones because weird things incite my curiosity.

I was born in Caçapava, a small countryside town in São Paulo, Brazil. Then, I lived in the capital of the state for 16 years before moving to Italy. I graduated with a Bachelor’s in Radio and Television (2004-2007) and a Master’s in Film and Video (2011-2012). I also graduated in Acting from Teatro Escola Macunaíma (2010-2014). In 2022, I completed my actor training at Identity School of Acting, a London-based school, where I was awarded a scholarship sponsored by Netflix.

I started my career in 2008 as a production assistant in commercials, working at the production companies O2 Filmes, Bossa Nova Films, and Sentimental Filme. I then worked as a freelance writer for independent culture websites and as a freelance videomaker producing corporate videos.

2014 was also the year I was among the winning screenwriters of the screenplay contest promoted by FRAPA, the biggest scriptwriting festival in Latin America, with the short film screenplay Kidney.

From 2015 to 2022 I created live music videos for the website Monkeybuzz, where I was fortunate enough to shoot with wonderful Brazilian musicians. Also for Monkeybuzz, I developed the documentary HALA – We Are Here, covering the tour made by the American band HALA in Brazil. It was produced by the website in partnership with the music label Balaclava and released by Red Bull Music Brazil.

As part of the theatre collective Zarpar, I produced the stage play Weirdos in 2018, a free-inspired adaptation of Tim Burton’s poem book The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories, written by Tadeu Renato and directed by Renata Hallada.

Two years later, I joined the Experimental Film Department at MIS (Museum of Image and Sound located in São Paulo) as assistant director. Sadly, the project was suspended after development due to Covid. Then in 2021, I directed two music videos for the project Píncaro (Roger Valença).

One of my screenplays was a semi-finalist at FRAPA in 2022 and was part of the script development group promoted by Marieta cultural center (São Paulo).

The following year, I created Tropical Alien, a bilingual platform to curate Brazilian cinema, publish reviews and interview filmmakers, covering features and shorts of various genres in both English and Portuguese.