Sonia Braga

Sonia Braga Headshot

Actress

Birth Date: June 8, 1950

Age: 73 years old

Birth Place: Maringá, Paraná, Brazil

A sultry and sensuous brunette, Sonia Braga began her career in her native Brazil as a teenager and made her stage debut at 17. From the late 1960s, she began to amass an impressive body of work, including appearances in several soap opera-like miniseries (telenovelas). Braga became an international sex symbol as a woman torn between her living spouse and the ghost of her dead one in Bruno Barreto's "Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands" (1977). She and Barreto reunited in 1983 for a film version of one of her most famous TV roles, "Gabriela."

With her growing popularity it wasn't long before American producers came calling and Braga made her English-language debut playing three roles in "Kiss of the Spider Woman" (1985), a superb adaptation of Manuel Puig's novel. In the motion picture, the sultry performer was cast as Raul Julia's girlfriend Marta, a chanteuse, and the mysterious titular character. While co-star William Hurt reaped all the glory (including an Oscar), Braga anchored the film with her enigmatic persona. Her cachet in the USA was solidified by two 1986 guest appearances on the NBC sitcom "The Cosby Show" playing a math teacher recalled by Cliff Huxtable (Bill Cosby) as a dour "Dragon Lady." (Of course, she's anything but!) Braga further demonstrated her comic gifts as the mistress of a dead Latin American dictator who coaches an impostor being groomed to replace him in the Paul Mazursky-directed "Moon Over Parador" (1988). That year, she also portrayed the temperamental garage owner fighting development in a small New Mexico town in "The Milagro Beanfield War." Braga and frequent co-star Raul Julia were teamed as German criminals in the Clint Eastwood vehicle "The Rookie" (1990) but the pair fared much better in the HBO biopic "The Burning Season" (1994).

Having spent more than a decade appearing in English-language features and TV projects, Braga returned to her native land to produce and star in "Tieta do Agreste/Tieta" (1996), based on a novel by Jorge Amado (as was "Dona Flor") and directed by the great Carlos Diegues. In one of those ironic moments, the film's plot mirror reality as Braga was cast as a wealthy, mature but still sexy woman returning to Brazil after years of living abroad. Securing the film rights, the actress had to wait several years to see the project to fruition, in part because of a small screen adaptation. For her, though, it was worth the wait, as Braga delivered a superb leading performance.

Although she unsuccessfully attempted to find success on American TV as co-star with Ann-Margret in the short-lived CBS serial "Four Corners" (1998), Braga has continued to find show parts in the USA. She was arguably well-cast as the sexy queen of the undead in the direct-to-video "From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter" (2000) and made impressions as Jennifer Lopez's mother in "Angel Eyes" (2001), the loyal wife of a jurist accused of murder in "Steve Martini's The Judge" (NBC, 2001), and the lesbian lover of Kim Cattrall's sexually voracious Samantha Jones on HBO's "Sex and the City" in a handful of 2001 episodes.

Credits

The First Omen

Actor
Sister Silva
Movie
2024

PRIME: Shotgun Wedding

Actor
Renata Ortiz
Show
2023

On Demand: Shotgun Wedding

Actor
Renata Ortiz
Show
2023

Shotgun WeddingStream

Actor
Renata Ortiz
Movie
2022
44%

Fatima

Actor
Sister Lucia
Movie
2020

Bacurau no Mapa

Self
Movie
2020

The Jesus Rolls

Actor
Mother
Movie
2019

Bacurau

Actor
Domingas
Movie
2019

WonderStream

Actor
Grans
Movie
2017
86%

Aquarius

Actor
Clara
Movie
2016

Emoticon

Actor
Sonia
Movie
2014

The Wine of Summer

Actor
Eliza
Movie
2013

Meddling Mom

Actor
Carmen Vega
Movie
2013

The Invisible World

Actor
(Segment "Kreoko") (the Sonia Braga)
Movie
2012

Feijoada Completa

Actor
Celeste
Movie
2012

As Cariocas

Actor
Júlia
Show
2010

Lope

Actor
Paquita
Movie
2010

An Invisible Sign

Actor
Mom
Movie
2010

Royal PainsStream

Guest Star
Lorena Correia
Series
2009

Sonia Braga

Self
Show
2007

Bordertown

Actor
Teresa Casillas
Movie
2007

Brothers & SistersStream

Guest Star
Gabriela Laurent
Series
2006
79%

Ghost WhispererStream

Guest Star
Series
2005

Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School

Actor
Tina
Movie
2005

LatiNation

Guest
Show
2004

American Family: Journey of Dreams

Actor
Berta Gonzalez
Show
2004

Testosterone

Actor
Pablo's Mother
Movie
2003

CSI: MiamiStream

Guest Star
Series
2002

George LopezStream

Guest Star
Series
2002

American Family

Actor
Berta Gonzalez
Show
2002

Empire

Actor
Iris
Movie
2002

AliasStream

Guest Star
Elena Derevko
Series
2001
86%

The Judge

Actor
Show
2001

Angel EyesStream

Actor
Mrs. Pogue
Movie
2001
32%

Perfume

Actor
Irene Mancini
Movie
2001

Posthumous Memories

Actor
Marcela
Movie
2001

From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter

Actor
Quixtla
Movie
2000

Family LawStream

Actor
Series
1999

La Fuerza del Deseo

Actor
Helena
Show
1999

A Will of Their Own

Actor
Show
1998

Sex and the CityStream

Guest Star
Maria Diega Reyes
Series
1998
70%

Four Corners

Actor
Series
1998

Money Plays

Actor
Irene
Movie
1998

Homestead

Actor
Carlota Alvarez
Movie
1998

Tieta do Brésil

Actor
Tieta
Movie
1996

Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child

Voice
Show
1995

Two Deaths

Actor
Ana Puscasu
Movie
1995

The Burning Season

Actor
Regina de Carvalho
Movie
1994

Roosters

Actor
Juana Morales
Movie
1993

The Last Prostitute

Actor
Loah
Movie
1991

Law & OrderStream

Guest Star
Series
1990

The Rookie

Actor
Liesl
Movie
1990

Tales From the Crypt

Actor
Series
1989
82%

The Milagro Beanfield WarStream

Actor
Ruby Archuleta, Owner Ruby's Body Shop
Movie
1988
61%

Moon Over ParadorStream

Actor
Madonna Mendez
Movie
1988
42%

The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains

Actor
Emily Del Pino Pacheco
Movie
1987

L'homme qui brisa ses chaînes

Actor
Movie
1987

Kiss of the Spider Woman

Actor
Leni Lamaison/Marta/Spider Woman
Movie
1985
86%

The Cosby ShowStream

Guest Star
Series
1984

Gabriela

Actor
Gabriela
Movie
1983

I Love You

Actor
Maria
Movie
1981

Chega Mais - Fragmentos

Actor
Gelly Maia
Show
1980

Dancin' Days

Actor
Júlia de Souza Matos
Show
1978

Dancin' Days

Actor
Júlia de Souza Matos
Show
1978

The Lady on the Bus

Actor
Solange
Movie
1978

Espelho Mágico

Actor
Cínthia Levy (Camila em Coquetel de Amor)
Show
1977

Saramandaia

Actor
Marcina Moreira
Show
1976

Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands

Actor
Dona Flor "Florípides" Guimarães
Movie
1976

Gabriela

Actor
Show
1975

Fogo sobre Terra

Actor
Brisa
Show
1974

Selva de Pedra

Actor
Flávia
Show
1972

A Moreninha

Actor
Carolina, the Moreninha
Movie
1970

Cleo e Daniel

Actor
Sandra (as Sonia Braga)
Movie
1970

The Red Light Bandit

Actor
Vítima
Movie
1968