Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos

Acting

Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos

Born

1954-06-25 (72)

Place of birth

Umbuzeiro, Paraíba, Brazil

Known for

Acting

Credits

55 titles

Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos is a Brazilian actor and director whose career spans film, television, theater, and circus. He gained international recognition for his performance as physician Drauzio Varella in Hector Babenco’s acclaimed Carandiru (2003), for which he received an acting award at the Cartagena International Film Festival. He made his feature-film debut as the legendary Brazilian outlaw Lampião in Perfumed Ball (O Baile Perfumado, 1996), and subsequently worked with acclaimed directors including Walter Salles and Andrucha Waddington. A prominent figure in Brazilian theater and circus, Vasconcelos is also known for creating the iconic clown character Xuxu, whom he has performed since…

Known for

Her Own Destiny poster
7.8

A story about people who succeed in life thanks to nothing but their own efforts. Maria do Carmo is the main character of the telenovela; a mother of five who struggle to be successful in life, but whose most important will be recovering the love of her daughter who was kidnapped when she was just months old.

Her Own Destiny

2004

Sweet Diva poster
7.3

Maria da Paz is a committed baker who becomes a wealthy businesswoman twenty years after a tragedy strikes on the day of her wedding to Amadeu. From this broken union a baby is born, Jô, who seeks power and despises her mother’s humble origins. Afraid that her parents’ reunion might spoil her plans, Jô starts an alliance with the charming Régis to convince Maria to marry him and, together, they plan to steal all of Maria’s fortune. In this exciting telenovela written by Emmy Awards winner Walcyr Carrasco, Maria’s optimism must be stronger than Jô’s ambition when the baker finds out about the betrayal and her own daughter’s dangerous secrets.

Sweet Diva

2019

The Life We Lead poster
8.2

This moving telenovela tells the story of an unconditional love that overcomes life’s unexpected turnarounds. Ana is a promising tennis player who counts on best friend and sister Manuela for support. After a terrible car accident, Ana goes into a deep coma and only emerges from it five years later. Now, she must struggle to recover the life that went on without her and that she no longer recognizes as her own.

The Life We Lead

2011

Time After Time poster
8.2

Livia and Felipe are in a forbidden love story doomed to end tragically. A century later, they both have a new chance to make their love real again. “Time After Time” is an innovative romance set in two different eras in which characters hold the opportunity to make up for their mistakes, come to terms with the past and write themselves another story.

Time After Time

2015

Brava Gente poster
8.3

Brava Gente was a television series aired by TV Globo in Brazil between 2000 and 2003, initially as a special year-end. The program was adapted from stories and national stories, and plays by famous playwrights, screenwriters and signed by a number represented by several actors and actresses. The genres of the stories varied each week with the style of each director or author. Brava Gente in the stories ranged from comedies and dramas. In all 53 episodes were shown, broadcast on Tuesday nights.

Brava Gente

2000

A Mother's Love poster
7.2

Lurdes is a mother of five who tirelessly seeks for Domenico, a child of hers who was sold by his own father 26 years ago; Thelma is an overprotective mother who finds out she has a terminal illness, and must race against time to make her dreams come true and prepare her son for a life without her presence; Vitória is a successful lawyer who sees the end of her marriage after countless failed attempts to have a baby and decides for adoption, but finds out she is pregnant during the process. In "A Mother's Love", the lives of these women are intertwined while they recognize themselves in the unconditional love provided by motherhood.

A Mother's Love

2019

Film credits

2020s · 10 titles

Marighella poster
7.6

Afro-Brazilian poet and politician, the legendary Carlos Marighella. Driven to fight against the erosion of civil and human rights following the CIA-backed military coup of 1964 and the brutal, racist right-wing dictatorship that followed, the revolutionary leaves behind his wife and son to take up arms, becoming a notorious enemy to the power structure.

Marighella

2021

The Bottled Captain poster
NR

Vanessa is a single mother haunted by a trauma from her past. Her son, Caio, is a creative child who seems to be escaping from reality. One day, the boy meets the little captain of a boat in a bottle who needs to set sail again, but the journey from the heart of Minas Gerais to the sea can be dangerous.

The Bottled Captain

2026

Luiz Gonzaga - Tyrant League poster
7.8

Portrays the life and work of the iconic Luiz Gonzaga do Nascimento. Focusing on his childhood and adolescence, the film seeks to explore the deep connections between the budding artist and the myths that shaped his

Luiz Gonzaga - Tyrant League

2025

Menino Azul poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Menino Azul

2021

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Viver é Melhor Que Sonhar

2026

Time, Knifed poster
NR

On two mysterious journeys, Neta and Deodato are driven by a shared purpose: to fulfill a mission. Guided by vengeance and the search for meaning in life, they follow paths that could transform their destinies.

Time, Knifed

2026

Heart of Darkness poster
NR

Rio de Janeiro, near future. Marlow is a police officer assigned to a mission to find Captain Kurtz, a famous policeman who went missing in mysterious circumstances. Marlow has to do his mission in a boat, undertaking a dangerous journey through the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.

Heart of Darkness

2026

A Arte de Morrer ou Marta Diptero Braquícero poster
NR

Night. Despair. Two flies meet and recognise each other in a restaurant abandoned to its own fate.

A Arte de Morrer ou Marta Diptero Braquícero

2024

Son of Ox poster
NR

João is a lonely boy living in the outback. No friends, no mother, and no bond with his father, he finds a chance to overcome his fears and a possibility to fit in when a small circus arrives in town.

Son of Ox

2024

Under the Heavens poster
7.0

Marta, a young Venezuelan mother, immigrates to Brazil. During her journey, she meets a struggling young couple. The couple has a baby and Marta the ability to breastfeed.

Under the Heavens

2020

2010s · 7 titles

Irmã Dulce poster
7.7

Biographical film of Sister Dulce, who, in life, was called the “Good Angel of Bahia”, also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and canonized by the Catholic Church. Contemplating from the 1940s to the 1980s, the film shows how the Catholic nun faced an incurable respiratory disease, machismo, the indifference of politicians and even the dogmas of the Church to dedicate her life to the care of the miserable, leaving a legacy that continues today.

Irmã Dulce

2014

Time and the Wind poster
7.1

Based on Érico Verissimo's literary trilogy, Time and the Wind follows 150 years of the Terra Cambará family and their opponents, the Amaral family. The struggles between the two families begin in the missions and lasts until the end of the 19th century. The film also features the period of formation of the state of Rio Grande do Sul and the dispute of territory between the Portuguese and Spanish crowns.

Time and the Wind

2013

The Inventor of Dreams poster
NR

Centered on two young boys, an aristocrat and a native, chronicles the period in which Brazil went from colony to the center of the Portuguese Empire.

The Inventor of Dreams

2013

A Family Submerged poster
6.2

Marcela’s world becomes strange and unfamiliar after her sister Rina dies. She feels lost in her own house, and her relationship with her husband and children seems to suffer. But when Nacho, a young friend of her daughter’s, unexpectedly drops by, she starts to talk and walk with him. Gradually Marcela begins to have conversations with relatives from another dimension.

A Family Submerged

2018

Fragma poster
6.0

Two lives look for meaning into a time that was lived, dreamed, and above all, felt.

Fragma

2013

Acalanto poster
NR

An illiterate lady seeks to soothe the missing of her son asking for a friend to read several times the same unique and old letter sent by her son ten years ago. Through these readings , a great friendship and complicity were born between them.

Acalanto

2013

The Midday Sun poster
NR

After a tragic crime of passion, Artur leaves the depths of Brazil on a journey in search of redemption. Early on, he meets Matuim, the anarchic captain of an old vessel, and comes to befriend him through a series of tense and comic situations.

The Midday Sun

2010

2000s · 10 titles

Carandiru poster
7.6

When a doctor decides to carry out an AIDS prevention program inside Latin America’s largest prison: the Casa de Detenção de São Paulo – Carandiru, he meets the future victims of one of the darkest days in Brazilian history.

Carandiru

2003

Behind the Sun poster
7.4

Brazilian badlands, April 1910. Tonho is ordered by his father to avenge the death of his older brother. The young man knows that if he commits this crime, his life will be divided in two: the twenty years he has already lived and the few days he has left to live, before the other family avenges their son's death. He is torn between fulfilling his ancestral duty and rebelling against it, urged by his younger brother Pacu. That's when a tiny travelling circus passes through the vast badlands where Tonho's family lives.

Behind the Sun

2001

Me, You, Them poster
6.9

A true story that comically depicts the relationship between an ordinary woman and her three husbands, who live in the same house in a poor and arid small village of the Brazilian northeast.

Me, You, Them

2000

O Natal do Menino Imperador poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

O Natal do Menino Imperador

2008

No artwork available
NR

Documentary about the Brazilian poet Joaquim de Sousa Andrade.

Sousândrade - O Guesa Errante

2004

Dry Movie poster
6.7

Weatherman from a TV network goes back to his hometown, Vale da Rocha, a place in Northeast Brazil, devastated by the drought. He is forced to face the geographic elements and his own memories.

Dry Movie

2005

How to Die in Cinema poster
6.2

Memories of a parrot who participated in the filming of the classic Vidas Secas, in 1962, where it was featured along the puppy Baleia.

How to Die in Cinema

2002

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Romance do Vaqueiro Voador

2007

O Homem Mau Dorme Bem poster
NR

In a petrol station near the road, three characters meet: Rita, the station's owner, that keeps searching for a love that she thought she once had; Wésley, a seller of pirate DVD's and CD's that, after thrown into underemployment, is trying to rebuilt his life; and Caburé, that haven't slept in years waiting to redeem a past of life and death. Gathered by an apparent coincidence, they weave their fate until they discover what is common in their stories.

O Homem Mau Dorme Bem

2009

Mutum poster
7.7

Thiago lives with his family on an isolated farm in the arid backlands of Minas Gerais, Brazil. As the story unfolds and Thiago is forced to confront separations and betrayal within the home, Thiago begins, little by little, to see and understand a place that he had never been able to before, thus slowly letting go of his innocence.

Mutum

2007

Series credits

Her Own Destiny poster
7.8

A story about people who succeed in life thanks to nothing but their own efforts. Maria do Carmo is the main character of the telenovela; a mother of five who struggle to be successful in life, but whose most important will be recovering the love of her daughter who was kidnapped when she was just months old.

Her Own Destiny

2004

Sweet Diva poster
7.3

Maria da Paz is a committed baker who becomes a wealthy businesswoman twenty years after a tragedy strikes on the day of her wedding to Amadeu. From this broken union a baby is born, Jô, who seeks power and despises her mother’s humble origins. Afraid that her parents’ reunion might spoil her plans, Jô starts an alliance with the charming Régis to convince Maria to marry him and, together, they plan to steal all of Maria’s fortune. In this exciting telenovela written by Emmy Awards winner Walcyr Carrasco, Maria’s optimism must be stronger than Jô’s ambition when the baker finds out about the betrayal and her own daughter’s dangerous secrets.

Sweet Diva

2019

The Life We Lead poster
8.2

This moving telenovela tells the story of an unconditional love that overcomes life’s unexpected turnarounds. Ana is a promising tennis player who counts on best friend and sister Manuela for support. After a terrible car accident, Ana goes into a deep coma and only emerges from it five years later. Now, she must struggle to recover the life that went on without her and that she no longer recognizes as her own.

The Life We Lead

2011

Time After Time poster
8.2

Livia and Felipe are in a forbidden love story doomed to end tragically. A century later, they both have a new chance to make their love real again. “Time After Time” is an innovative romance set in two different eras in which characters hold the opportunity to make up for their mistakes, come to terms with the past and write themselves another story.

Time After Time

2015

Brava Gente poster
8.3

Brava Gente was a television series aired by TV Globo in Brazil between 2000 and 2003, initially as a special year-end. The program was adapted from stories and national stories, and plays by famous playwrights, screenwriters and signed by a number represented by several actors and actresses. The genres of the stories varied each week with the style of each director or author. Brava Gente in the stories ranged from comedies and dramas. In all 53 episodes were shown, broadcast on Tuesday nights.

Brava Gente

2000

A Mother's Love poster
7.2

Lurdes is a mother of five who tirelessly seeks for Domenico, a child of hers who was sold by his own father 26 years ago; Thelma is an overprotective mother who finds out she has a terminal illness, and must race against time to make her dreams come true and prepare her son for a life without her presence; Vitória is a successful lawyer who sees the end of her marriage after countless failed attempts to have a baby and decides for adoption, but finds out she is pregnant during the process. In "A Mother's Love", the lives of these women are intertwined while they recognize themselves in the unconditional love provided by motherhood.

A Mother's Love

2019

Now Generation poster
2.8

The genius Jonas Marra (Murilo Benício, from Brazil Avenue) has attained what few others have — a rich and famous celebrity of the digital world in Silicon Valley and the owner of Marra International, a respected technology conglomerate. But behind his image of a successful businessman lies another person shrouded in conflict and mystery.

Now Generation

2014

Caribbean Flower poster
7.0

Cassiano, an air force pilot, and Ester, a tourist guide, fall madly in love at a young age. Their love grows throughout the years until they fall victim to a treacherous plot carried out by Alberto. This unscrupulous friend, who secretly loves the young woman, creates a plan to get rid of his rival. After being assigned by Alberto to deliver diamonds in the Caribbean, Cassiano suddenly disappears and is presumed dead. While Cassiano falls prey to dangerous Dom Rafael, Alberto takes the opportunity to comfort Ester and, fulfilling his evil plan, they marry.Cassiano, who remained in captivity for years, manages to escape with the help of a fellow prisoner named Duque and, pretending to be a tourist, reaches Brazil. Now he wants to square accounts with his former friend and reclaim Ester’s love.

Caribbean Flower

2013

O País do Cinema poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

O País do Cinema

2016

Cangaço Novo poster
7.7

Adrift and desperately needing money to pay for his ailing adoptive father's care, Ubaldo, a bank clerk who's unable to remember his childhood, receives an inheritance that will change his destiny for good. He goes to Cratará, in the heart of the northwest desert, where he'll become the leader of a pack of ruthless bandits, fulfilling the legacy of his biological father - a mythical cangaceiro.

Cangaço Novo

2023

Guerreiros do Sol poster
8.5

The story of two country folk, Josué and Rosa, and how they meet to become one of the most famous cangaceiro couples of all time.

Guerreiros do Sol

2025

Above Justice poster
7.1

In this realistic and touching series told in an innovative format, seemingly independent plots intertwine to show how justice can sometimes be a personal matter.

Above Justice

2016

Aruanas poster
7.5

Three friends leading a nonprofit organisation investigate environmental crimes in the Amazon involving a major mining company.

Aruanas

2019

Queridos Amigos poster
8.0

Reserved, intelligent and generous, Leo has achieved professional success and now lives secluded in Serra da Cantareira, alongside young Karina. He discovers that he is ill, and decides to reunite the old friends of the 1970s, with whom he fought the military regime.

Queridos Amigos

2008

Cena Aberta poster
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

Cena Aberta

2003

Cena Aberta poster
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

Cena Aberta

2003

O Tempo e o Vento poster
9.1

It tells the story of two families that are mortal enemies in the fictitious city of Santa Fe, at the end of the 20th century. Its characters who reek of soil, blood, and hard liquor get involved in various events in the small town, where their passions, desires, idealism and envy become intertwined and collide in a poetic and unexpected way.

O Tempo e o Vento

2014

Alucinação poster
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

Alucinação

2026

Stone of the Kingdom poster
NR

Death Caetana, the terrible ounce winged, flying over the hinterland where a circus troupe led by an old clown comes to a village. The old clown open a thick book and begins the representation of an enigmatic novel, heroic and memorialistic: The Stone of the Kingdom. The clown is Pedro Dinis Quaderna, the protagonist of the novel, already aged, and the representation of the content will be his own memories. The old clown recalls the moment, "arrested and prematurely aged by suffering , after 41 years" wrote the novel in the public chain Taperoá.

Stone of the Kingdom

2007

Carandiru: The Series poster
9.5

No synopsis available yet.

Carandiru: The Series

2005

Pastores da Noite poster
10.0

The Night Shepherds universe is inhabited by prostitutes, priests, rogues, saint's parents and street vendors. For a very Brazilian people who fight every day for survival and only rely on the solidarity spirit and friendship of each other. The seductive Cabo Martim, the romantic Curió, the noble Massu, the artful Foot of Wind and the Jesuit master live their adventures in four independent episodes, which are completed in their poetry and the strength of each story.

Pastores da Noite

2002

Marighella poster
8.4

Determined to fight the military regime, Marighella leaves his son behind to take up arms, becoming a notorious enemy of the dictatorship.

Marighella

2023

Behind the camera