Regina Casé

Very few Brazilian artists are so identified with their people, with the periphery life, as Regina Casé is. Very few names leave such a distinctive, coherent and funny mark on TV history, bringing laughter and dignity to the needy, opening to them a space so they can register their desires, yearnings, preferences and complaints.

  • 1954

    Regina was born in a hot February 25th, in the middle of 1954 Carnival, in Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro. She is Geraldo César Casé and Heleida Barreto Casé’s daughter, and Ademar Casé’s (a Brazilian radio pioneer) grand-daughter.

  • 1970

    Regina met the theater in 1970, when she unpretensiously enrolled in a course taught by Sergio Britto.

  • 1974

    On May 1st, 1974, the actress founded the group Asdrúbal Trouxe o Trombone, which was formed by Vaz Pereira, Alberto Soares, Luiz Arthur Peixoto and Daniel Dantas. The group début: the play “O Inspetor Geral”, by Russian dramatist Nikolai Gogol.

  • 1977

    In 1997, a 23-year-old Regina wins Best Actress Molière for her role in the play “Trate-me Leão”, directed by Vaz Pereira. The show runs at Theatro Ipanema, in Rio de Janeiro, and then goes to São Paulo, at Teatro das Nações.

  • 1978

    In 1978, Regina breaks into films, with a role in “Chuvas de verão”, by Cacá Diegues. On the same year, Arnaldo Jabor asks her to do a greater role in “Tudo bem”. She says: “I knew absolutely nothing. I didn’t know there was a film set, nor that we needed to stand there, still, reciting the text to the camera, waiting for the photographer to set the light…”.

  • 1983

    In 1983, Regina innovates on stage with the play “A farra da terra”, that brings together the cinema language and the live performance. The show brings live projections, coordinated by two videomakers. That allows the audience to see the actors’ expressions in much more detail. On the same year, Regina continues to consolidate her presence on TV, with the soap opera “Guerra dos sexos”, by Silvio de Abreu, playing Carlotinha Bimbatti. She also appears in the shows “Sitio do pica-pau amarelo” and “Chico Anysio Show”. .

  • 1986

    In 1986, Regina leaves her mark in Brazil with her first great role, Albertina Pimenta, the famous Tina Pepper, from the soap-opera “Cambalacho”, written by Silvio de Abreu and directed by Jorge Fernando. “This was one of the few soap operas in which I worked from the beginning to the end; Tina Pepper was created especially for me”, she remembers. “Tina was so cool, so unique, that once I went to “Programa do Chacrinha” dressed like her, as if I was her. People still call me Tina in the streets. This character also gave me something very interesting regarding to my color. Because Tina Turner is black, Brazilian people started to think I was black too. And they still believe so.

  • 1988

    One of the most importante shows of Brazilian TV, “TV Pirata”, was launched in 1988. Regina was in the cast, together with great actors like Luiz Fernando Guimarães, Débora Bloch, Cláudia Raia, Diogo Vilela, Cristina Pereira and Ney Latorraca. The most famous character Regina ever played was the host of the “Casal telejornal”, a sketch that she starred together with Guimarães. In 1989, Regina gives birth to her daughter, Benedita Casé Zerbini.

  • 1990

    In the 1990s, Regina already has a solid career in theater, television and cinema. The play “Nardja Zulério” launches in Rio in 1990 and is a great success. It was staged for five years throughout Brazil.

    On December 28th, 1994, Regina takes part of another success of Brazilian TV: the show “Brasil Legal”. Originally, it has been broadcasted as part of Globo’s special programming for Christmas and New Year, but it officialy débuts in May 1995. With this show, Regina travels through Brazil and the world, interviewing people (mainly unknown people) whose stories reveal a unusual Brazil to Brazilian people.

  • 1994

    On December 28th, 1994, Regina takes part of another success of Brazilian TV: the show “Brasil Legal”. Originally, it has been broadcasted as part of Globo’s special programming for Christmas and New Year, but it officialy débuts in May 1995. With this show, Regina travels through Brazil and the world, interviewing people (mainly unknown people) whose stories reveal a unusual Brazil to Brazilian people.

  • 1998

    “Brasil Legal” is aired until 1988, when “Muvuca” débuts. “Muvuca” is a weekly show, aired for two years. She remembers: “Because it was a weekly show, we tried to do the same thing we’d done on ‘Brasil Legal’, I mean, go to the places and meet new people, but on the stage of ‘Muvuca’. We didn’t go to the people anymore: they came to us”. On its first year, the show was recorded at a mansion in Humaitá (Rio de Janeiro), where Regina hosted celebrities, musicians, common people. On the second year, the crew started travelling again, not only thorough Brazil, but also to Miami and Trinidad and Tobago.

  • 2000

    In 2000, she ends “Muvuca” and is back to the movies, in “Eu, tu, eles”, by Andrucha Waddington. Regina now is working with great actors such as Lima Duarte, Stenio Garcia and Luiz Carlos Vasconcellos, and her character is Darlene, a northeastern woman. Her acting moves thousands of people and is celebrated even by the “New York Times”, which compares Regina to the Italian diva Anna Magnani.

    Regina continua com um pé na dramaturgia e outro no comando de programas no decorrer da década.

    Thoughout the decade, Regina continues acting and working as TV host. In 2001, she plays a role in the soap-opera “As filhas da mãe”, by Silvio de Abreu, and also hosts the show “Um pé de quê?” (Futura channel), telling the story of several tree species, relating them with Brazilian literature. In 2002, she ventures into film direction, together with director Fernando Meirelles on the episode “Wólace e João Victor”, the pilot of the “Cidade dos homens” series. Regina then directed other episodes: “Tem que ser agora”, in 2003, “Pais e filhos”, in 2004 (whose leading actor, Douglas Silva, receives a Emmy nomination for Best Actor), and “As aparências enganam”, in 2005.

  • 2006

    In 2006, Regina debuts the Globo special “Central da periferia”. She says: “’Central’ is a response for every single thing I’ve done on TV: ‘Brasil total’, ‘Cidade dos homens’, ‘Fantastico’ sketches, ‘Brasil legal’. We discovered it was the form to mix everything and to focus our attention on the neighborhoods on the outskirts of cities. We really do a kind of international militancy, trying to decriminalize the favelas’ area, the periphery area, where most people keep their car windows and doors locked when passing by, trying to show that, even if 10% of that population being of criminals, 90% of the population still want to go to school, to work. If we think we suffer with the violence, let alone who lives there, in the favelas”. The first episodes show Regina travelling through Brazil, revealing the periphery areas of Recife, São Paulo, Belém and Salvador.

  • 2007

    In 2007, Regina debuts in a mini-series, “Amazônia: de Galvez a Chico Mendes”, by Gloria Perez. The actress continued recording her sketches to “Fantastico”, now hosting the documentary series “Minha periferia é o mundo”, about the life out of the urban centers.

  • 2009

    In 2009, the samba school Leandro de Itaquera (São Paulo) pays homage to Regina, with the samba “Leandro de Itaquera faz a festa das periferias do Brasil para o mundo… Salve, salve nossa estrela Regina Casé”. The song tells the story of her work as actress and host, remembering several times when she has called the attention to the issue “periphery”.

  • 2011

    In 2011, Regina hosts the tv show “Esquenta”, which brings to TV stage several Brazilian musical celebrities, in a funny and natural style. On the show, she keeps her connection to the periphery issue, showing musical styles as popular as funk and pagode.