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Ana Paula Aleixo Lopes was born in Coimbra and grew up on the island of São Miguel, in the Azores. She was six years old when her parents bough a camera, and seven when she first performed in a school play. She started directing her own shows and videos then, just so she could keep acting.
When Ana moved to Lisbon to study Law, she auditioned for the University's Theatre Company and became a member. She got to work with director Pedro Wilson for five years, in acclaimed plays like The Trial and Waiting for Godot, for which she got a standing ovation at Teatro Maria Matos, after Lucky's monologue. Ana stepped on many more prestigious national stages throughout college, and enrolled in two other Theatre programs, led by Mara Manzan and José Boavida. She was also featured in Portuguese movies next to big stars and directed by renowned filmmakers. By the time she got her Law diploma, Ana was already on her way to Hollywood, where she completed the one-year Acting for Film Conservatory Program at the New York Film Academy with honors. After shooting at the Universal Studios lot, performing at the Victory Theatre and screening her first movies as the lead at Warner Brothers, the Portuguese actress stayed in Los Angeles, not only to play Woyzeck's Marie at the Dorie Theatre and Mary Stuart at the Bootleg Theatre, but also to make her big screen professional debut in films such as Laurita and the critically acclaimed The Last Tenant. Back in Portugal, Ana starred in several plays, soap operas, series and television movies, but shone the brightest as the lead in countless independent films, including multi-award-winning Artur, directed by Flávio Pires, and A City Between Us, by Maria João Ferreira. After producing a couple of TV shows in her native country, Ana got hired as a Producer in London, where she also worked as an actress, won a scholarship to study at TVI Actors Studio, and starred in the feature film ...Where is She Now?, that ended up receiving over 30 awards. Ana moved back to Los Angeles and, another Acting program later, got her Extraordinary Ability Visa. She was cast as the lead in the award-winning film Separar, which got her a nomination and was selected for several Oscar-qualifying Film Festivals. She was in the midst of filming a pilot, Vu Pham's Portland-based arthouse drama The Horizon is a Scar, My Love, and the feature film Merrily, with Oscar-nominated Terry Moore, when the pandemic hit. These projects will probably resume this year. In the meantime, again in Portugal, Ana booked the romantic lead in the new motion picture by award-winning filmmaker Luís Diogo, starred in the Paramount movie The Infernal Machine alongside Guy Pearce, and filmed other projects, three of which are making the festival rounds. She was also invited to be part of the recurring cast of OPTO-SIC's series A Lista, and is proud to be the protagonist of the next film by illustrious director Margarida Gil. |
