This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Casper Libero chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.
Wagner Moura is a forty-eight year old famous actor and director, born in Salvador, Bahia. His career started back in the 90s on stage, but his national recognition came in the 2000s, when he starred in a famous play, named “A Máquina”, acting alongside Lázaro Ramos and Vladimir Britcha, two famous Brazilian actors, which lead to him gaining opportunities on movies and TV.
His success consolidated with the role in Carandiru, playing Zico and Ó Pai, Ó, acting as Boca and once again with his friend Lázaro Ramos. Hence forward, his roles and fame kept increasing more and more, especially because of his character Captain Nascimento, the main one in “Tropa de Elite” and “Tropa de Elite 2”. Both movies are timeless and critically acclaimed in Brazil due to its social critics, related to drug dealing and the corrupt political system.
His career gained unimaginable proportions, overtaking borders and continents, by giving him roles in international movies and TV shows, not only Civil War, where he played a war journalist during the civil war in the USA with his colleague Kirsten Dunst, but also the Netflix production Narcos, where he interpreted the most famous drug dealer of all time, Pablo Escobar.
As if all of this wasn’t amazing, he is also known for dubbing the Wolf in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and for directing the movie Marighella, which premiered in 2019 and was starred by Seu Jorge and Bella Camero.
Wagner has accomplished countless goals in his career, specially many awards, such as ‘best actor’ in the Cartagena International Film Festival for his role as Zico in “Carandiru”; ‘best actor in movies’ in different events, national and international, for Captain Nascimento in “Tropa de Elite” and “Tropa de Elite 2”. However, his most recent award was due to his role in Secret Agent, where he gave life to Marcelo, a university professor specialized in technology during the military dictatorship in Brazil. The award received was the ‘best actor’ in the Cannes Film Festival 2025, the first one ever given to a brazilian professional.
All his awards and worldwide recognition are just consequences of his hard work, talent, dedication and versatility. He is just an example of how Brazilian professionals are underrated in the entertainment industry, and how harder it is for them to gain visibility.
Brazil is so proud of Wagner Moura.
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The article above was edited by Isabela Theodoro.
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