Benedita Pereira

 Field: Cinema and Acting

Award-winning actress Benedita Pereira achieved major stardom in her native Portugal by the time she was 18. Born and raised in Porto, Benedita decided she was going to be an actor at age 8. This came just after being enrolled in the Balleteatro Centro de Formacao, where she immediately began participating in stage productions. As a youth, she performed at Porto’s National Theatre and landed a few minor television roles. While finishing her high school exams,Benedita landed her first major TV role: a lead in Portugal’s first teen-targeted series (“Morangos com Açúcar”) on TVI, the country’s major network. The show proved an immediate success and catapulted Benedita to ‘instant stardom’.

 

Over the next five years, her success in her home country continued to grow with offer after offer arriving for starring roles in numerous TV series and a couple of stage productions. Despite this success, she longed for more growth as an actor and decided to learn to act in her fluently and articulately spoken 2nd language, English (unaccented). She moved to New York and resumed her training, attending the Lee Strasberg Institute; finishing the 2-year Conservatory program and then returning home to Portugal after accepting an offer for lead in a new series. Her instincts in accepting the role were on target, as her portrayal of man trapped in a woman’s body in “Ele é Ela”, earned her a trophy for Best Actress at the 2010 Portugal TV7 Dias Awards.

 

Returning to New York City with her new prize, Benedita received an offer to star in a U.S./Portugal co-production (the multiple award winning short film “Tu & Eu”).  Adding mastery of multiple languages to her 900+ episodes as a lead in television and extensive travels to more than a dozen countries, results in the her special and rare qualifications in the English language market. Benedita continues to work with esteemed Russian coach Dr. Polina Klimovistkaya.

Recently, she was scene on New York stage performing two Samuel Beckett short plays and her voice and likeness are the basis of the Brazilian character Fabiana in the 3rd installment of Rockstar Games’ mega hit Max Payne series.