Actor Ricardo Pereira joins the Netflix platform as a creative producer.

Portuguese actor Ricardo Pereira has signed a contract with Netflix to work as a creative producer to help “match” Portuguese projects that the producer and the streaming platform might develop, he told Lusa’s agency.

The 43-year-old Portuguese actor, who rose to prominence by working in television fiction in Portugal and Brazil, will focus on Portuguese productions and the Brazilian and Spanish markets, analyzing “which projects can and make sense to develop”, giving them a “showcase”.

“First of all, it’s mapping these good projects where we understand that they have legs to walk on, giving them all the structure to walk on. […] and give an exposition window, in case these projects are also made, produced, developed,” he explained.

The streaming platform Netflix has been available in Portugal since 2015, and five years later she co-produced the first Portuguese feature series Gloria, directed by Thiago Guedes, also with SPi and RTP producing. The premiere took place in November 2021.

While Netflix has already included several other audiovisual and film titles in its catalogue, in 2022 Netflix once again co-produced a new Portuguese fiction series based on a project selected in a screenwriting competition launched in 2020 with the Film Institute. and audiovisual.

Rabo de Peixe, which premieres this month, was filmed in the Azores by Augusto Fraga and Patricia Sequeira and produced by Ukbar Filmes.

The platform also collaborates with the Academia Portuguesa de Cinema to show films by Portuguese women who have been involved in production, directing or writing scripts.

Ricardo Pereira explained that his entry into Netflix can be seen as “another channel for projects and obviously for analysis.”

Ricardo Pereira believes that thanks to a combination of several factors, such as the creation of a “cash discount” system and the Tourism and Film Support Fund, the existence of the Portuguese Film Commission and the emergence of more platforms in the Portuguese market. Portugal made a “very big leap”.

“I think that in recent years we have made a very big leap in Portugal, and not only in the quality of projects, as they have moved outside the country,” he said, stressing that additional investment is needed.

“I think that all of us, producers, actors, directors, all the “players” that exist on the market, all TV channels, should always want. […] We always want more investment,” he said.

Ricardo Pereira’s contract with this platform will also include work as an actor and, in the future, as a director.

For confidentiality reasons, he did not say how many years he will be associated with the company, nor did he provide details about the projects in which he is already involved.

“This is a contract that allows me to go out into the world. […] It’s a window of creative opportunity that I’ve been looking for for a long time,” he said of his personal journey.

In over two decades of acting career in film, theater and television, Ricardo Pereira had a long association with SIC and with Brazilian TV Globo, for which he participated in several telenovela productions.

On a Portuguese TV channel, he has appeared, for example, in the soap operas Amor Amor (2021), Alma e Coração (2018-2019), Perfeito Corçaão (2009-2010) and Laços de Sangue “. (2010-2011). In Brazil, he participated in “Como uma onda” (2004–2005), “Negócio da China” (2008), “Joia Rara” (2013) or the latest telenovela “Cara e Coragem” (2022).

In film, he has worked with such names as Mario Barroso, Raul Ruiz, Vicente Alves do O and Ivo M. Ferreira.

As for SIC, he said that he will continue his cooperation as a presenter, and the TV Globo chapter is closed.

“For Globo, we are done and now we are starting a new cycle with Netflix. This contract also, in a sense, allows me to have other windows of opportunity, ending up in other projects, in other places. But the focus now is to take care of the Portuguese Netflix market as a creative producer and also work as an actor,” he explained.

Asked by Lusa, an official Netflix source did not disclose the amount of investment in the Portuguese audiovisual sector or the number of subscribers in the country.