We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ian Braga. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ian below.

Hi Ian, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

When I was three years old, my mother took me to see a play. There were adults playing children and animals, everyone spoke, danced and acted with a lot of energy and joy. The colors of the stage, the sets, everything was very lively. At the end of the show, my parents took me to see the actors (who were still singing and dancing) off and I felt that there was a lot of life there, a lot of will to live, a real pulse of vital energy. My eyes lit up. I asked my mother who those people were and she said they were actors. That day I decided I was going to be an actor and I’ve never put it out of my mind since.

Of course, apart from that momentous day, I was a child who loved to express myself through art. I loved storytelling classes, painting, singing and theater. I’ve always loved people and stories and, over time, this has improved and brought me closer to acting.

Ian, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Ian Braga, a 32-year-old Brazilian actor and presenter. In 2023 I starred in the TV Globo special “Vivo Ou Morto” (Alive or Dead), the country’s largest broadcaster. I’m currently in theaters with the comedy film “Saideira” (The Last One). For 2025, I’m starring in the series “1986”.
In independent cinema, I’m starring in 13 short films. In 2021, I received the “Best Actor” award at the “All That Moves International Film Festival” for the role of Juliano, a young evangelical conflicted by discovering himself to be queer and religious, in the drama “His Voice”. This October I’m very happy to be premiering the short film “Bela LX-404” at one of Brazil’s biggest festivals, the “Festival do Rio”, starring one of the greatest actresses we’ve ever had in our country, Lea Garcia, who was nominated for the best female actor award at the Cannes Film Festival, and who sadly passed away in 2023. In the poetic short film “Desaparecido” (Disappeared), I share the story with award-winning Brazilian actor Caio Blat. I’m awaiting the release of the shorts: “The Sound of the Silence”, a drama inspired by the history of the Barbacena Colony Hospital, better known as “The Brazilian Holocaust”, in which I play the Lead character, Rafael, who is arrested, tortured and killed; and the short film “João Ninguem”, in which I play a failed dancer trying to overcome the sadness of not being able to become a successful dancer.
I also produced and presented a travel program on YouTube, with tips for getting around Brazil on a budget, called “Descomplica Ian” (Make it Easy Ian). For this program I received the award for “Best Life Style Program” at one of the biggest internet awards in Brazil, RioWebFest.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One lesson I unlearned is that actors memorize text. Honestly, that’s usually my last concern when I’m creating a character. Even though it’s one of the questions actors get asked the most: “How do you memorize so much text?”. Of course, there is a curiosity, because it really is a challenge, depending on the text and the number of scenes. But honestly, when I’m building a new character there’s so much research, so much work to understand his universe and create bridges so that I can inhabit this universe that memorizing text really becomes one of the last stages. Another lesson I’ve unlearned is that acting is just technical study. Obviously it’s very valuable, I’ve studied and continue to study techniques, but no technique goes any deeper if you don’t allow yourself to live new experiences, do things and be in environments that are really different from everyday life. Actors above all need to be curious about what they don’t know and about people’s stories. You can get gold from the ordinary.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Living “others life” and telling stories! Acting first means listening. The world is so big and full of so many different lives. Every time I play a character, I discover a new universe. And it’s not just a fictional universe, but a universe that really exists. This year, for example, I played a ballet dancer and practiced ballet for months. If I hadn’t been an actor, I might not have been able to experience ballet the way I did. So acting allowed me to get to know other realities without so much personal judgment. In life we often don’t get to reflect, but acting is exactly about stopping and dilating time to absorb an experience and live a story. I believe that when this extended time is established, we have the quality of seeing more aspects of the other person’s behavior and also our own. We see the other in ourselves and our self in the other. A certain communion of human failings and successes. It’s cliché, but my profession allows me to experience life through many different experiences.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.instagram.com/ianbraga1/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ianbraga1/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/ianbraga

Image Credits

Studio photos: Priscila Nicheli
Outdoors photoshoot: Pedro Sabino