Alice Braga

The Gaze That Escaped the Favelas

Alice Braga didn't need permission to get into film. In 2002, a single beach scene in Rio de Janeiro was enough for the world to take notice of Angélica. City of God put her face on posters across half the planet while she was still trying to understand what it meant to be a professional actress.

We're talking about a woman who grew up on film sets but avoided the easy path of her family name. Her aunt is Sonia Braga. But Alice built her own network of contacts without asking for favors at home, because she preferred to fail on her own terms.

Her move to Hollywood was no accident.

In 2007, she shared the screen with Will Smith in I Am Legend. That 150 million dollar production changed her fee overnight. The industry saw in her a profile capable of carrying drama in extreme action settings without losing credibility.

She kept exploring the genre with Predators in 2010 and Elysium in 2013. On the latter, she worked under Neill Blomkamp on a shoot that demanded constant physical preparation. So she got used to physical shoots where sweat wasn't a makeup effect.

The Business of Running the Story

Television gave her full control in 2016. For five seasons, she played Teresa Mendoza in Queen of the South. She filmed 62 episodes, leading one of the most profitable dramas on USA Network in the U.S. market.

And the gamble paid off.

Braga didn't limit herself to acting in front of the camera in the years that followed. In 2021, she joined the superhero universe with The Suicide Squad under the direction of James Gunn. It was a large-scale shoot where the budget exceeded $……180 million, and she took on the role of a guerrilla leader.

But her interest in complex storytelling brought her back to pure science fiction. In 2024, she starred in the series Dark Matter for Apple TV+. In this production, she plays a psychologist trapped in an alternate reality where time jumps drive the pace of the plot.

She never accepted the role of the eternal supporting actress.

Away from the spotlight, she runs her own production company, AJ Produções. From there she develops projects that aim to finance stories shot entirely in Brazil. In 2024, her schedule filled up with the planning of three new titles in which she takes on executive producing and script supervision roles.

The distribution contract for her latest international series includes a territorial exclusivity clause for the Latin American market that expires in 2027.