Isabél Zuaa
Actress, director and screenwriter
Crédito: Helena Cooper
Isabél Zuaa is a multidisciplinary artist born in Lisbon, with Angolan and Guinean roots, who works as an actress, director, and screenwriter.
In film, Isabél has appeared in works such as the award-winning “O Agente Secreto” (2025, Dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho), “A Viagem de Pedro” (2021, Dir. Laís Bodanzky), “Um Animal Amarelo” (2020, Dir. Felipe Bragança)—for which she received the Best Actress award at Festival do Rio—and “As Boas Maneiras” (2017, Dir. Marco Dutra and Juliana Rojas)—for which she received the Best Actress award at the Zinegoak and Sitges festivals.
Across TV and streaming series, Isabél has appeared in “Reencarne” (2025, Globoplay), “Independências” (2022, TV Cultura), and “Sob Pressão” (2018, TV Globo), among others.
Her practice stems from dramaturgies in which bodies like hers occupy centrality and protagonism, proposing narratives where presence, identity, and memory intertwine. Through the artistic object as a living archive, she summons biographies and references to generate expansive questioning.
In 2019, she co-founded the collective AURORA NEGRA together with Cleo Diára and Nádia Yracema. The group premiered at TNDM II with “Aurora Negra” (2020), followed by “COSMOS” (2022) and “Missão da Missão” (2023) at Teatro do Bairro Alto. They also created the Festival KILOMBO, whose first edition took place at Espaço Alkantara (2021) and the second at Teatro São Luiz (2023), in partnership with the Alkantara Festival. Isabél is a co-founder of UNA - União Negra das Artes. She was featured in BANTUMEN’s POWERLIST 2021 and 2022 as one of the 100 most influential personalities in the Lusophone world.