Leandro Lima

The Stigma of the Pretty Face

Leandro Lima didn't start his career memorizing scripts on a television set. In the late 1990s, he sang axé music in a band called Ala Ursa in his native Paraíba. The stage was his natural habitat, but real money came when a modeling agency took him out of Brazil to walk the runways in Milan and Paris.

He worked for fashion houses such as Armani and Cavalli for nearly a decade.

But fashion has an expiration date, and Lima knew it well. So in 2005 he decided to invest his savings in dramatic training at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York. That decision was the first step toward moving from mannequin to a serious actor.

Returning to Brazil with an international modeling résumé didn't make things easier in the audiovisual industry. In 2009 he landed a small role in the telenovela Caminho das Índias. It was a necessary first taste of the industry, since Brazilian camera work requires a very specific technique.

And it worked.

Leandro was looking for complex, shadowy celebrities whose appeal didn't depend on his looks. In 2017 he took part in Belaventura, and a year later in Lia. These projects taught him that period television demands grueling physical discipline.

Global Success and Mud

The definitive change in how audiences saw him came in 2022 with the premiere of Pantanal. He played Levi, a violent, obsessive ranch hand who became one of the most talked-about villains in Brazilian television. For this role, he had to shoot in extreme conditions and learn to handle cattle in the largest wetland in the world.

Audiences forgot his past on the runway.

In 2019, he had already made a major breakthrough with Coisa Mais Linda. In this period drama, he played Chico, a musician, which allowed him to connect his earlier career as a singer with acting. The show had notable international success on digital platforms and gave him a visibility he had previously only enjoyed in advertising.

In 2023, he starred in the erotic thriller O Lado Bom de Ser Traída. The film reached number one worldwide in its category during its first week of release. It was a project that blended suspense with carefully crafted aesthetics, and it showed that Lima could carry the weight of a production designed for global audiences.

Big-Budget Productions

During 2024, he focused on filming Dona Beja, a large-scale production in which he plays Antônio Sampaio. Shooting stretched over several months on locations in Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais. This version aims to update a classic of Brazilian television with a technical approach much closer to cinema than to traditional video.

Not everything in his recent career has been drama.

In 2023, he also appeared in the comedy Minha Irmã e Eu. It was a lighthearted exercise that came as a welcome change after the intensity of his earlier characters. The actor often alternates between these registers to avoid being typecast, a trap that awaits performers who come from the world of men's fashion.

The series Dona Beja had a technical crew of more than two hundred people to recreate 19th-century Brazil.