Let’s get the work stuff out of the way: I was Head Writer of the Hulu series How To Be a Carioca and developed the hit Netflix series Invisible City (US Top Ten).

Right now, I’m writing a live-action feature for MGM/Amazon Studios produced by Viola Davis’s and Maurício Motta’s Ashé Ventures. I’ve also developed a feature for Disney Animation and spent two years at Blue Sky Studios under an overall deal until the studio’s closure in 2021.

Cool credits, yes. But the “how” matters more to me than the “what.” So here’s the short version of how I ended up in Studio City, LA, typing this with my dog Alef snoring next to me.

Back in Brazil, I’d built a career: 17 plays, two blockbuster movies, five musicals, the Brazilian Ugly Betty, and the country’s top theater award. In 2016, I wrote and directed a musical performed for a daily crowd of 50,000 at a rock festival in Lisbon. We opened for Bruce Springsteen, Queen, Maroon 5… it was the wildest thing I'd ever done. But during the last show, I realized something was missing—not on stage, but in my life.

I wanted a new challenge. In a new language.

So I packed my life into two suitcases, moved to NYC without knowing a soul, taught musical theatre to kids in the Bronx, and wrote my first US play, The Ideal Obituary (Time Out). Then came Real (American Theatre Magazine), which led to two years as an in-house writer at Blue Sky Studios (Fox Animation) and eventually the cool credits I mentioned.

What I didn't tell you is that in these last ten years of writing, I recreated my life: I went from a closeted queer dude who led a pretty harsh life in my conservative country, to a self-loving goof who's obsessed with the power of stories.

I run an open-access Writers Club, to aspiring writers, give a free talk called Storysharing on turning personal experiences into fiction, and mentor young writers through the LGBTQ center. Meanwhile, I keep writing and spreading the word: stories told with heart don’t just describe reality—they create it.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, Alef woke up and is asking to go on a walk :)