Cazzu Andrade

Cazzu Andrade approaches acting as an archaeological dig into his own flesh. The Carioca actor grew up with a family memory erased by centuries of official storytelling in Brazil. In the workshops at the Museu de Arte do Rio, he decided to stop short and dig into what lay beneath the silence about his Afro-Indigenous ancestry.

That search shaped all of his later work.

Contained Camerawork and Shared Silences

In 2022 he landed his first fiction film role in Assim como Lembramos, a medium-length film directed by Alice Ripper. He played César, one of three friends who share beers and confessions on a patio after the pandemic lockdown.

The film dispensed with easy melodrama to focus on the quiet moments of everyday conversation. They shot in natural light with twenty-seven-minute continuous takes that required holding the gaze without editing tricks. As a result, the staging relied almost entirely on the chemistry of the lead trio.

But the language of intimate cinema was not enough to fully express the restlessness Andrade had been carrying since his stage days in Rio de Janeiro.

It took stepping onto the stage without a safety net.

The Body as a Trench Between Two Shores

In 2023 he began rehearsals for La caída, a physical theater and experimental performance project conceived by Spanish creator Laura Corcuera. The project kicked off with a research residency at the Universidade Federal Fluminense to question the Western notion of failure.

Andrade shared the stage with singer Lucía Santalices and toured several Spanish cities during the spring of 2024. They premiered the European version at the Museo de Menorca before moving the production to self-managed spaces such as La Deskomunal in Barcelona and Ateneo La Maliciosa in Madrid.

And the tour confirmed the power of his physical presence. The trio turned a bodily stumble into an explicit political statement against the lingering effects of colonial thinking, before an audience unaccustomed to the raw intensity of direct action.

Because the production allowed no decorative concessions and never let audiences sit back comfortably in their seats.

The Pulse of Rio's Suburbs

Andrade always kept his roots in the outskirts of his hometown. In July 2024 he joined the cast of Juca, a comedy set in the working-class taverns of the Bangu neighborhood, where he played Nico.

The play competed at the Passos National Festival thanks to the ensemble work of a cast forged in Rio's independent theater circuit. The production revived street slang and portrayed life in suburban bars without falling into paternalistic folklore.

In March 2025, he took on the role of Quincas in Hoje é Dia de Rock, José Vicente's classic staged at the Jovelina Pérola Negra Arena in Pavuna with free admission for the neighborhood.

To put the show together, he rehearsed for eight months with residents of the North Zone under the financial backing of the Lei Paulo Gustavo.

The total budget for that community production barely topped forty thousand reais for sets and costumes.