Fernanda Torres: The Life Story Behind Brazil's Oscar Star

Fernanda Torres was born on 15 September 1965 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and she became one of Brazil’s most acclaimed actors, with a career that spans theatre, television, and film, and that reached its peak in 2025, when she won the Golden Globe for Best Actress for I’m Still Here, becoming the first Brazilian to win that award. She is the daughter of Fernanda Montenegro, Brazil’s greatest actress, and Fernando Torres, an actor and theatre director, and she grew up in a household where theatre was not a job but a way of life. Her career has been defined by intelligence, versatility, and a willingness to take on difficult roles, from telenovelas to international films to a novel that became a bestseller. Fernanda Torres’s story is about a girl who grew up in the shadow of a legend, and who became a legend herself, on her own terms, with a Golden Globe that her mother, nominated for an Oscar in 1998, never won.

Rio de Janeiro: The Daughter of Two Legends

Fernanda Pinheiro Torres was born in Rio de Janeiro, the daughter of Fernanda Montenegro, already one of Brazil’s most famous actresses, and Fernando Torres, an actor and theatre director, and she grew up in a household where the theatre was part of daily life. She has a younger brother, Cláudio Torres, who became a film director, and the family lived in Rio, where Fernanda attended school and where she was drawn to acting from an early age, watching her parents perform and imagining herself on stage. The childhood was privileged in the sense that her parents were famous and respected, but it was also demanding, because the expectation that she would become an actor was strong, and the shadow of her mother, a legend, was long. Fernanda has spoken about the experience of growing up as the daughter of Fernanda Montenegro, about the pride and the pressure, and about the determination to make her own way. The Rio childhood was happy, creative, and theatrical, and it gave Fernanda a sense of the stage that few children have.

As a child Fernanda appeared on stage, in small roles in her parents’ theatre productions, and she showed a natural talent that her parents noticed, although they were careful not to push her. She attended school in Rio, where she was a good student, and she also studied acting, taking classes and working in theatre, learning the craft from the ground up. The family was close, and the support they gave her was the foundation of her career, even though the pressure to live up to her mother’s reputation was real. By the time she was a teenager, she had decided that acting was her life, and she began taking professional roles, in theatre and in television, with a determination that surprised even her parents. The childhood on stage was the foundation, and the early roles, in theatre and on television, were the training ground for a career that would take her from Rio to Hollywood to the Golden Globes. The daughter of legends was about to become a legend herself.

By the time Fernanda was in her late teens, she was already a working actress, with roles in telenovelas and in films, and she was also writing, a talent that would later become a major part of her career. Her early career included theatre, television, and film, and she built a reputation as a versatile, intelligent actor, capable of playing comedy and drama. The teenage years were busy, with school, acting, and writing all competing for her time, and Fernanda managed them with an energy that her friends and family remember. The Rio childhood was the foundation, and the early work was the training ground, and the daughter of Fernanda Montenegro was ready to step out of her mother’s shadow.

Childhood on Stage and the First Roles

Fernanda Torres’s telenovela career began in the 1980s, with roles in Brazilian series that made her a familiar face to television audiences, and her performances, with their intelligence and their emotional range, set her apart from other young actresses. Her television work included dramas and comedies, and her reputation as a television actor was established early, with roles that showed her versatility. The telenovela, which is Brazil’s most popular form of entertainment, requires an actor to work fast and to sustain a character over many episodes, and Fernanda’s theatre training gave her the discipline to do it well. Her television work in the 1980s and 1990s included dramas and comedies, and her performances were praised by critics, who noted her ability to play both serious and funny roles. The television years were the making of her as a popular star, and they gave her a national audience.

The film career began in earnest in the 1980s, with Fernanda appearing in Brazilian films that showcased her talent, including Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar in 1986, directed by Arnaldo Jabor, in which she played a young woman, and the film was a critical success, winning awards at Cannes. She also appeared in O Que É Isso, Companheiro? in 1997, known in English as Four Days in September, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The film, about the kidnapping of the American ambassador in Brazil in 1969, featured Fernanda in a supporting role, and its Oscar nomination brought her international attention. The early film years were a period of growth, with Fernanda building a reputation as a serious film actor, capable of playing complex, political roles.

By the 1990s Fernanda was an established actor in Brazil, with a career that spanned theatre, television, and film, and with a reputation for intelligence and versatility. She worked with major Brazilian directors, including Arnaldo Jabor and Bruno Barreto, and her performances were consistently praised, even when the films themselves were modest successes. The 1990s were also the years when she began to write, with essays and columns in Brazilian newspapers, a talent that would later lead to novels. The decade was a productive one, with Fernanda working steadily and building a body of work that was respected by her peers. The young star of the 1980s was becoming a mature actor, and the transition, from ingénue to leading lady, was a successful one, because Fernanda’s talent was not based on youth or beauty but on intelligence and craft. The daughter of a legend was becoming a legend in her own right, and the best was yet to come.

Telenovelas, Film and the Young Star

Fernanda Torres’s international career began with the film Love in the Time of Cholera in 2007, directed by Mike Newell and based on the novel by Gabriel García Márquez, in which she played a supporting role alongside Javier Bardem, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, and Benjamin Bratt. The film, which was shot in Colombia, was a major international production, and its cast, which included actors from many countries, gave Fernanda a chance to work in English and to reach a global audience. The film’s reception was mixed, with critics finding it less successful than the novel, but Fernanda’s performance was noted, and the experience of working on an international production was valuable. The role showed that she could work outside Brazil, in a different language and a different industry, and that her talent translated across cultures. Love in the Time of Cholera was not a breakthrough, but it was a step, and it introduced Fernanda to audiences who had never seen a Brazilian film. The international years were a period of expansion, with Fernanda taking roles that stretched her, even if they did not make her a global star.

The international years were a period of expansion, but her main career remained Brazilian, with theatre, television, and film in Portuguese, and Love in the Time of Cholera was her most prominent English-language role. The decision to remain based in Brazil, rather than to move to Hollywood, was a deliberate one, because Fernanda’s roots, her family, and her artistic home were in Rio, and the Brazilian industry, with its theatre, its telenovelas, and its films, offered her a rich and varied career. The international years were a detour, not a destination, and the return to Brazil, with its stage and its screens, was a homecoming. The actor who had worked in Colombia with Javier Bardem was still, at heart, a Rio actress, and her best work would come in Portuguese, in a film about Brazilian history, in 2024.

The 2000s and 2010s brought Fernanda a mix of theatre, television, and film work, with stage productions in Rio and São Paulo, and with a growing reputation as a writer. The period was productive, with Fernanda working steadily, although the major international breakthrough had not yet come. She also became a writer, publishing her first novel, Fim, in 2013, a book that became a bestseller in Brazil and that was praised for its humour, its insight, and its portrayal of a group of friends in Rio. The novel’s success showed that Fernanda’s talents went beyond acting, and that she was a writer of real ability. The 2010s were a period of growth, in which Fernanda balanced acting with writing, and in which she built a reputation as a public intellectual, with columns in the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo and with a voice in Brazilian cultural life. The actor was becoming an author, and the author was becoming a star.

Love in the Time of Cholera and the International Years

Fernanda Torres’s writing career is a major part of her story, because she is not only an actor but a novelist, with her first novel, Fim, published in 2013, becoming a bestseller in Brazil. Fim, which means The End, tells the story of a group of friends in Rio de Janeiro, five men who meet regularly and who reflect on their lives, their marriages, and their mortality, with a humour and a insight that made the book a critical and commercial success. The novel was praised for its dialogue, its characterisation, and its portrayal of middle-aged life in Rio, and it was adapted for television, as a series, in 2023. Fernanda followed it with a second novel, A Glória e Seu Cortejo de Horrores, published in 2017, which was also praised, and her writing, which is witty, observant, and deeply Brazilian, has made her one of the country’s most respected authors. The writing career showed a different side of Fernanda, a literary talent that her acting roles had not revealed, and it gave her a second career that she could pursue alongside acting.

The novels are notable for their humour, their energy, and their celebration of Rio life, and Fernanda has said that she wrote them for herself, as a way to explore characters and stories that she could not play on stage or on screen. The books’ success, with strong sales and positive reviews, showed that her creativity was not limited to acting, and that she had a talent for storytelling that went beyond performance. She has also written columns for the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, in which she discusses politics, culture, and daily life in Brazil, with a voice that is sharp, funny, and engaged. The writing career is a reminder that actors are often writers, artists, and creators in other fields, and that a career in film does not have to be the only outlet for a creative person. The novels are a significant part of Fernanda’s legacy, and they are likely to outlast many of her film roles, because books are read for generations, and the stories she tells, about Rio, about friendship, and about ageing, are universal.

The writing career also gave Fernanda a way to express herself that acting did not, because a novel is a solitary, personal work, created over years, while a film is a collaborative, public one, created in months. The contrast suited her, because she has always been a private person who values her independence, and the books allowed her to work at her own pace, on her own terms. The novels have also been adapted, with Fim becoming a television series, and the adaptations have introduced her stories to new audiences. Fernanda’s work as an author is a reminder that her talents are broader than her filmography suggests, and that the girl who grew up in a theatrical household has always had a storyteller’s imagination. The books are a quiet, personal achievement, and they deserve to be mentioned alongside I’m Still Here and Central Station as part of her story.

Writing, Novels and the Author

I’m Still Here, released in 2024 and directed by Walter Salles, is the film that made Fernanda Torres a global star, and it remains the defining work of her career. She played Eunice Paiva, a woman whose husband, Rubens Paiva, a former congressman, is taken by the military dictatorship in Brazil in 1971 and never returns, and who spends the rest of her life seeking the truth about his disappearance and raising their five children alone. The film, based on the memoir by Marcelo Rubens Paiva, Eunice and Rubens’s son, is a story of loss, resilience, and dignity, and Fernanda’s performance, with its restraint, its strength, and its emotional depth, was praised as one of the best of the year. The film won awards at the Venice Film Festival, where Fernanda won Best Actress, and it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best International Feature, and Best Actress for Fernanda, making her the second Brazilian actor nominated, after her mother in 1998. In January 2025 Fernanda won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama, becoming the first Brazilian to win that award, in a historic moment for Brazilian cinema.

The Golden Globe win in 2025 was a major event, not only for Fernanda but for Brazil, because it was the first time a Brazilian actor had won a Golden Globe for Best Actress, and the country’s press covered the win as a national triumph. Fernanda’s acceptance speech, in which she thanked her mother, Fernanda Montenegro, who was in the audience, and spoke about Brazilian cinema, was widely shared and widely praised. The win was particularly poignant because her mother had been nominated for an Oscar in 1998 for Central Station, also directed by Walter Salles, and had not won, and the daughter’s victory, twenty-seven years later, in a film by the same director, felt like a completion of a family story. The film’s Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, were also historic, because I’m Still Here was the first Brazilian film nominated for Best Picture, and its win for Best International Feature at the Oscars in 2025 was a further triumph. The Golden Globe and the Oscar nominations made Fernanda a star around the world, at the age of fifty-nine, in a late-career triumph that few actors ever achieve.

The making of I’m Still Here was a labour of love, with director Walter Salles casting Fernanda after a long search, and with the film shot on location in Rio and in São Paulo, in the 1970s and in later decades, showing Eunice Paiva’s life over fifty years. The film’s young co-stars, including the actors who played Eunice’s children, were praised, and Fernanda’s performance, which spans decades, from a young mother to an elderly woman, required her to age on screen, with makeup and with a changing physicality. The film’s cinematography, by Adrian Teijido, gives it a warm, nostalgic look, and its music, by Warren Ellis, is haunting and beautiful. I’m Still Here premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it won awards, and its success in Europe and in the United States made it one of the most acclaimed films of 2024. The film’s legacy is enormous, and it remains the standard against which Brazilian cinema is measured, and Fernanda’s Eunice is one of the great performances in world cinema.

I’m Still Here: Eunice Paiva and the Golden Globe

Torres’s greatest role came in I’m Still Here, the 2024 film directed by Walter Salles and based on the memoir by Marcelo Rubens Paiva, in which she played Eunice Paiva, a mother of five whose husband, the former congressman Rubens Paiva, was arrested by Brazil’s military dictatorship in 1971 and never seen again. The film tells the story of Eunice’s decades-long fight for the truth about her husband’s fate, a fight that took her from grief to activism, and that made her a symbol of resistance to the dictatorship. Torres’s performance, as a woman who must hold her family together while searching for answers, is quiet, dignified, and powerful, and its restraint, with long silences and small gestures, is a masterclass in acting. The role was a personal one, because the story is part of Brazil’s history, and Torres, whose own family lived through the dictatorship, brought a deep understanding to it. I’m Still Here is the film of her life, and her performance is its heart.

The film’s reception was extraordinary, because it premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2024, where it won the award for Best Screenplay, and it became a cultural event in Brazil, with audiences queuing to see a film about a painful chapter in their country’s history. Torres won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama in January 2025, becoming the first Brazilian actor to win an acting Golden Globe, and her acceptance speech, in which she thanked her mother and spoke about Brazilian cinema, was widely shared. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and it won the Oscar for Best International Feature Film, the first Oscar win for a Brazilian film. The awards, and the film’s success around the world, made Torres an international star at fifty-nine, and her late-career triumph is one of the most inspiring stories in recent cinema. The Golden Globe, which her mother had been nominated for twenty-six years earlier, came home to the same family.

The film’s most moving detail is its casting, because Torres’s mother, Fernanda Montenegro, appears in its final scenes as the elderly Eunice Paiva, the same character Torres plays as a younger woman, and the passing of the role from daughter to mother, across forty years of a life, is a profound image. The two performances, together, tell the story of a woman’s whole life, from the young mother who loses her husband to the old woman who has survived, and the audience sees a family, a country, and a history in the two faces. The film’s impact in Brazil went beyond cinema, because it reignited a national debate about the dictatorship, about memory, and about justice, and Torres’s speeches, about democracy and about the importance of remembering, were widely quoted. I’m Still Here is not only a film; it is a national moment, and Torres, at the centre of it, became a voice for Brazil, as well as its greatest actress.

The Torres of Today: Actor, Writer and National Treasure

Today Fernanda Torres lives in Rio de Janeiro, works in theatre, television, film, and writing, and continues to be one of Brazil’s most respected artists, with a career that spans more than forty years, from her early telenovelas to the Golden Globe in 2025. She is a mother of two sons, Joaquim and Antônio, with her husband, the film director Andrucha Waddington, whom she married in 1997, and her family life, in Rio, has been a central part of her story. She continues to write, with columns and novels, and to act, with stage productions that draw audiences who come to see a Golden Globe winner. Her fans, who include Brazilians of all ages, remain loyal, and her new work has brought her international audiences as well. The story that began in Rio, with the daughter of two legends, became one of the great stories of world cinema, and it continues, with the next chapter likely to include more film, more theatre, more writing, and more of the intelligence that has defined her career. Fernanda Torres’s story is about a girl who grew up in the shadow of a legend, and who became a legend herself, on her own terms.

My Take:

I’m Still Here is a masterpiece, and Fernanda Torres’s performance as Eunice Paiva is the reason why, because Eunice is one of the great characters in world cinema, a woman who loses her husband to a dictatorship and who spends fifty years seeking the truth, and Fernanda plays her with a restraint and a strength that are extraordinary. The film’s story, based on the memoir by Marcelo Rubens Paiva, is a true one, and its power comes from its understatement: Eunice does not shout, does not protest loudly, but endures, raises her children, and demands answers, with a dignity that is more powerful than any speech. Fernanda’s performance, which spans decades, from a young mother in 1971 to an elderly woman in the 2010s, is a masterclass in ageing on screen, with her physicality, her voice, and her face changing subtly over time. The Golden Globe win was deserved, and the Oscar nomination was deserved, because Fernanda’s Eunice is one of the finest performances of the decade. I’m Still Here is a great film, and Fernanda is great in it.

Eunice Paiva is a character that could have been a symbol, but Fernanda makes her into a person, because she plays Eunice’s strength as a daily, practical thing, not as a heroic pose, and her grief as a quiet, persistent ache, not as a dramatic outburst. The film’s best moments are the small ones: Eunice cooking for her children, Eunice smiling at a family photograph, Eunice sitting in a government office, waiting for an answer that never comes, and Fernanda’s face in those moments carries the whole film. The performance is a masterclass in restraint, because Fernanda does less, not more, and the less she does, the more the audience feels. The Golden Globe win, the first for a Brazilian actor, was a historic moment, and it was deserved, because Fernanda’s Eunice is a performance that will be remembered for decades. A viewer who wants to understand Brazilian cinema should start here, because I’m Still Here is the film that defines it, and Fernanda’s Eunice is the performance that defines it.

Fim, Fernanda’s first novel, is a book that deserves more attention than it gets from film audiences, because it is a witty, observant, and deeply Brazilian novel about a group of friends in Rio, and it shows a writer of real talent. The novel’s story, about five men who meet regularly and reflect on their lives, is told with a humour and an insight that make it a joy to read, and its dialogue, which is sharp and funny, shows Fernanda’s ear for how people actually speak. The book’s success, as a bestseller in Brazil, and its adaptation as a television series, confirmed that Fernanda’s writing was not a hobby but a serious career. The novel is a useful introduction to Fernanda as an author, because it shows a storyteller who is interested in ordinary life, in friendship, and in ageing, and who writes about them with a clarity that is rare. Fim is a good novel, and it deserves to be read, even by readers who have never seen Fernanda act.

Four Days in September, known in Portuguese as O Que É Isso, Companheiro?, is a film that shows Fernanda’s early talent, because it is a political thriller about the kidnapping of the American ambassador in Brazil in 1969, and Fernanda’s supporting role, as a member of the revolutionary group, is played with a conviction and an intelligence that make the character memorable. The film, directed by Bruno Barreto, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1997, and its success brought Fernanda international attention, years before I’m Still Here. The film’s story, about idealism, violence, and the Brazilian dictatorship, is a difficult one, and Fernanda’s performance, with its seriousness and its commitment, shows an actor who was already, in her thirties, capable of playing complex, political roles. The film is a useful reminder that Fernanda’s career did not begin with I’m Still Here, but that she had been a serious film actor for decades, and that the Golden Globe was the culmination of a long career, not a sudden breakthrough.

Love in the Time of Cholera is a film that is often dismissed, but Fernanda’s small role in it deserves a mention, because it shows her working in English, in an international production, alongside Javier Bardem, and holding her own. The film, based on Gabriel García Márquez’s novel, was a major production, shot in Colombia, and its cast, from many countries, gave Fernanda a chance to work outside Brazil. The film’s reception was mixed, but Fernanda’s performance was noted, and the experience was valuable, because it taught her how international productions work. The role is small, but it is significant, because it shows that Fernanda’s talent translates across languages and cultures, and that she could have had an international career if she had chosen to pursue one. The decision to remain in Brazil was a deliberate one, and it is a measure of her commitment to Brazilian culture that she stayed. Love in the Time of Cholera is a footnote, but it is an interesting one.

The mother-daughter story, with Fernanda Montenegro and Fernanda Torres, is one of the most remarkable in world cinema, and it deserves to be celebrated, because it involves a mother nominated for an Oscar and a daughter who won a Golden Globe, a pair of achievements that no other family can claim. The daughter’s win in 2025, in a film directed by Walter Salles, the same director who made Central Station with her mother in 1998, felt like a completion of a family story, and the mother’s presence at the Golden Globes, watching her daughter win, was a moving moment. The relationship between the two women, which is close and loving, is a major part of both their stories, and their mutual support, over decades, is a testament to the power of family. The family legacy is a remarkable one, and it shows that talent, when nurtured, can pass from one generation to the next. The Montenegros are Brazil’s first family of acting, and their story is inspiring, not only for Brazilians but for anyone who believes in the power of art and family.

Fernanda’s theatre work is the foundation of her career, and it deserves more attention than it gets from film audiences, because the stage is where she began, and where she has spent much of her life. Her performances in Rio and São Paulo, in plays by Brazilian and international authors, are respected in Brazilian theatre, and her stage presence, with its intelligence, its humour, and its emotional range, is the reason she is regarded as one of Brazil’s finest actors. The theatre is a demanding medium, requiring an actor to sustain a character for two hours without a cut, and Fernanda’s decades on stage are a testament to her stamina and her craft. A viewer who has only seen her films should know that the stage is where she is most at home, and that her film performances, great as they are, are only a part of her work. The theatre is Fernanda’s first love, and it remains so, even after the Golden Globe, when she still performs on stage in Rio.

Fernanda’s columns in Folha de S.Paulo are a part of her career that deserves a mention, because they show a public intellectual, a writer who discusses politics, culture, and daily life in Brazil with a voice that is sharp, funny, and engaged. The columns, which she has written for years, are read by thousands of Brazilians, and they have made her a trusted voice in the national conversation, on subjects ranging from the arts to democracy. The writing is not a side project but a major part of her public life, and it shows that Fernanda’s interests go beyond acting, to the larger questions facing Brazil. The columns’ success is a reminder that actors can be thinkers, and that a performer who writes well is a rare and valuable thing. Fernanda’s voice, in print as on stage, is one that Brazilians listen to, and that is a significant achievement.

My honest assessment is that Fernanda Torres is one of the finest actors in the world, and that her career is defined by an intelligence, a versatility, and a talent that few actors in any country can match. Her strength is her restraint: she plays characters with a subtlety and a depth that make them feel real, and her performances have a power that comes from what she does not do, as much as from what she does. Her weakness, if it can be called one, is that her work is mainly in Portuguese, and that her fame outside Brazil, although real since I’m Still Here, is still growing. That is not her fault; it is a reflection of the language barrier. Her legacy will be I’m Still Here, Fim, and the standard she set for Brazilian acting. She changed what was possible for a girl who grew up in the shadow of a legend, and she did it by becoming a legend herself, on her own terms.

If a new viewer wants to approach Fernanda, the order is straightforward: start with I’m Still Here for Eunice Paiva, then read Fim for the novelist, then watch Four Days in September for the early film actor, and then look for her theatre work in Rio. The order matters, because it shows the arc from a girl in Rio to a Golden Globe winner to a writer, and it avoids the temptation to judge her by a single role. Fernanda’s career is a long one, and it repays patience, because each role adds a layer to the last, and the whole is a portrait of an actor who has never stopped working, never stopped writing, and never stopped being excellent. She is one of the best, and her best is still coming.

One final point about Fernanda is that her late-career triumph, winning a Golden Globe at fifty-nine, is an inspiration, because it shows that an actor’s best work can come late, when the performer has the experience to make it count. The film industry often discards actresses after forty, and Fernanda’s win is a rebuke to that practice, proving that a woman in her late fifties can carry a film and win the highest honours. The triumph is not only personal but also political, because it shows that Brazilian cinema, and Brazilian women, deserve to be seen. Fernanda’s win is a victory for every actor who has been told they are too old, and it is a reminder that talent does not expire.

Fernanda’s marriage to Andrucha Waddington, a film director, deserves a last word, because their partnership, since 1997, has been a creative as well as a personal one, with Waddington directing films, including The House of Sand, in which Fernanda’s mother starred, and with the couple raising two sons in Rio. The marriage shows a family in which art is a shared life, not only a job, and in which husband, wife, mother, and children all work in film and theatre. The Waddington-Torres household is a centre of Brazilian culture, and its story is part of the larger story of Brazilian cinema. A family that makes art together is a rare thing, and the Torres-Waddington family is a remarkable one.

Torres’s role in Os Normais, the Brazilian television sitcom that ran from 2001 to 2003, is one of the most beloved in her career, because she played Vani, a neurotic, funny, modern woman in a long-term relationship with Rui, played by Luiz Fernando Guimarães, and the show’s depiction of a couple’s everyday life, with its arguments, its sex, and its humour, became a cultural phenomenon in Brazil. The series, created by Alexandre Machado and Fernanda Young, was based on a series of short films, and its success led to a feature film, Os Normais, in 2003, and a sequel, Os Normais 2, in 2009, both starring Torres and Guimarães. The show’s writing, with its frankness about relationships, was unusual for Brazilian television at the time, and Torres’s performance, as a woman who is both vulnerable and fierce, is the show’s heart. Os Normais is a classic of Brazilian television, and Vani is one of Torres’s signature roles, alongside her film work.

Torres’s work as a writer deserves a mention, because her first novel, Fim, published in 2013, was a bestseller in Brazil, telling the story of a group of friends in Rio de Janeiro who reunite at a funeral, and it was adapted into a television series for Globoplay in 2023, bringing her fiction to a new audience. Her second novel, A glória e seu cortejo de horrores, published in 2017, continued her exploration of Rio’s middle class, with a dark, funny tone that critics praised. Torres has also written columns for the newspapers Folha de S.Paulo and O Globo, in which she writes about politics, culture, and everyday life, with a wit that has made her one of Brazil’s most read columnists. The writing career, which runs alongside her acting, shows a woman who is not only a performer but a thinker, and whose voice, on the page as on the screen, is unmistakable.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where was Fernanda Torres born?

Fernanda Torres was born on 15 September 1965 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She is the daughter of Fernanda Montenegro, Brazil’s greatest actress, and Fernando Torres, an actor and theatre director.

What film won Fernanda Torres a Golden Globe?

I’m Still Here, released in 2024 and directed by Walter Salles, won her the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama in January 2025. She played Eunice Paiva, and she became the first Brazilian to win that award.

Who did Fernanda Torres play in I’m Still Here?

She played Eunice Paiva, a woman whose husband Rubens Paiva was taken by the Brazilian military dictatorship in 1971 and never returned. The film follows Eunice over fifty years as she seeks the truth and raises their five children.

Yes. Fernanda Torres is the daughter of Fernanda Montenegro. Her mother was nominated for an Academy Award for Central Station in 1998, and her father Fernando Torres was an actor and theatre director.

What novels has Fernanda Torres written?

Her first novel, Fim, was published in 2013 and became a bestseller in Brazil. She followed it with A Glória e Seu Cortejo de Horrores in 2017, and she also writes columns for the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo.

Was Fernanda Torres in Love in the Time of Cholera?

Yes. She played a supporting role in Love in the Time of Cholera, released in 2007 and directed by Mike Newell, based on Gabriel García Márquez’s novel, alongside Javier Bardem and Giovanna Mezzogiorno.