Maisa Silva

Precocity as a Working Tool

Maisa Silva appeared on Brazilian television at age three. She didn't do it as an extra or as a catalog model for diaper ads. In 2005, during Raul Gil's show, she spoke her first line into a microphone and made it clear that her mind worked faster than any veteran host on the network.

The audience was glued to the couch.

In 2007, she joined SBT to host children's segments such as Sábado Animado. There, she played with the kids who called in while managing the timing of the technical production with a strange ease. Her image back then, defined by perfect curls and period dresses, hid a professional who was earning millions before turning ten. The audience didn't want a girl reading a script; they wanted her ability to break away from it and put the adults on the spot.

And the bet paid off for more than a decade.

The Move into Acting and the Switch to the Other Side

In 2012, she played Valéria Ferreira in the telenovela Carrossel. It was her first serious foray into long-running acting and the start of a transition that many child stars never manage to make. However, she avoided the public scandals and identity crises that often derail these early careers. In 2014, she voiced the lead in O Menino no Espelho and began expanding her presence in Brazilian cinema.

Her full departure from SBT in 2020 was a calculated move to enter the on-demand market. She signed a deal with Netflix that led to movies such as Pai em Dobro in 2021 and the series De Volta aos 15 in 2022. In the latter, she plays Anita, a thirty-year-old woman who physically returns to her teenage years. The project was well received in international markets and confirmed her weight in global streaming.

But the Brazilian market still had a place for her on traditional television.

In 2024, TV network Globo announced she had signed on to play the villain in the telenovela Garota do Momento. It's her first villain role after nearly twenty years playing the good girl or the charismatic host the whole country wanted to adopt. Filming for the production was scheduled for the second half of that year at studios in Rio de Janeiro, with a crew of more than one hundred people. The actress has a social media following of over 45 million users.