About Me
I'm a New York City based actor, living a life that has always been filled with culture and adventure. I was born in Villa Nova de Gaia on the banks of the Rio Douro in Portugal to Cape Verdean migrants. At age six, my family moved to the biggest city in the smallest US state - Providence, Rhode Island. I grew up in a very close-knit immigrant community, speaking a multitude of languages including Portuguese, Creole and Spanish. I tried French in college but je suis awful!
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Rhode Island being a cultural melting pot, I was exposed to and learned about all of the different ethnic groups in our community. There were people from different countries including Cambodians, Laotians, El Salvadorians, Armenians, Haitians, Italians, and a multitude of African cultures, including my own. It was this experience that fostered my sense of curiosity of the world and fed my desire to travel to remote places. So far I've traveled to countries throughout Central America, South America, the Caribbean, Europe and Africa. Four continents down, three to go! Antartica is low on the list since I hate the cold!
Growing up in Rhode Island, its hard not to fall in love with the outdoors, especially the beach. Summers were spent at the beach with family and friends, and fishing with my dad. Anyone that has ever picked up a fishing pole knows that the number one thing you need when fishing is a relentless amount of patience, which I had very little of. So while my dad fished, I was off wandering through the beach, searching for hidden treasures and building sandcastles. My imagination painted a different life than what really existed on the expansive beaches. Was there a treasure chest under the rocks waiting to be discovered? Is that cave the hiding spot for pirates planning their attack? In my mind anything was possible
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I fell in love with the theater and acting while attending the University of Rhode Island (Go Rhody!). It was while performing in the theater department’s production of Aesop’s Fables: Venus and the Cat that I fell hard for the stage. After college I decided to move to NYC to pursue acting but my life took a slight detour, landing me in the corporate world. The business world can be….well, you have to be many things to many people while trying to stay neutral.
Even while I was chained to my desk of pain in the corporate world, acting was always a constant thought. After a few years I couldn't take being away any longer and so I decided to jump back in. I found my way to the William Esper Studio’s Two Year Acting program where I studied with the Terry Knickerbocker, a decision that forever changed my life. Terry showed me that I can dig deep and find characters that always lived inside me because every character is a version of me - bent; that we're multidimensional and that there are many versions of us, which allows us to play different characters. How fun is that?!
Now I'm off, fearlessly dreaming through new adventures in acting!