Biography

Raul Ruiz's critically acclaimed "Mysteries of Lisbon" (2010) put Maria João Bastos on the map of the European and International cinema and brought her roles in films like Valeria Sarmiento's "Lines of Wellington"(2012) or Michael Sturminger's "The Casanova Variations"(2014) starring John Malkovich. But long before that, Maria João Bastos was one of the most acclaimed and respected actresses of Portugal and Brazil. She started her career in television in the late 90's in TV series, soap operas and TV movies of great success in Portugal. Maria João was invited by TV Globo to move to Brazil and be the star of the worldwide Brazilian successful soap operas. She lived in Rio de Janeiro for five years and returned to Portugal where she continued working in some of the most prestigious television productions in the country, the TV series "Equador" shot in 2008 in four continents, "Sedução" (2010), "Destinos Cruzados" (2013), "O Bairro" (2014), "Três Mulheres" (2017-2022), "Crónica dos Bons Malandros" (2020), "A Espia" (2020) and "Da Mood" (2021), now in Brazil. In cinema, Maria João was directed by veterans like Ruy Guerra "Veneno da Madrugada", Fernando Lopes "Em Câmara Lenta" or Fernando Vendrell "Sombras Brancas" and new generation talents like André Badalo "Shoot Me" or Artur Serra Araújo "A Moral Conjugal". Maria João did her first steaming production in 2019, "The Mechanism" directed by José Padilha for Netflix, then "Motel Valkirias" (HBO) and premiered in 2023 "Turn of the Tide" (Netflix).

- IMDb mini biography by: MMC