Wagner Moura

Wagner Maniçoba de Moura (born 27 June 1976) is a Brazilian actor, filmmaker, musician, and journalist. He appears as Dan Velasquez in the Apple TV+ adaptation of The Shining Girls by South African Author Lauren Beukes.

Besides being a well-established and acclaimed actor in Brazil, he has achieved international fame for roles in Elite Squad (2007), its sequel: Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (2010) and Elysium (2013) as Spider. He received a Golden Globe nomination for his role as Pablo Escobar in the first two seasons of the Netflix series Narcos (2015–2016).

His first major play was A Máquina ("The Machine"), in 2000. At this time, he became good friends with two other upcoming actors, Lázaro Ramos and Vladimir Brichta. It was also because of this play that Wagner travelled for the first time to Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. In the same year, after a few short movies, Moura had a small participation on the movie Woman on Top.

After small roles in movies like Abril Despedaçado ("Behind the Sun", 2001), As Três Marias ("The Three Marias", 2002), 2003 launched Moura's career to a whole other level. He played a major role in the drama Carandiru, where he portrayed Zico, and the leading role of the comedy Deus e Brasileiro ("God Is Brazilian"), where he played a funny fisherman who became friends with God.

Even though at this point of his career Moura was a well-established movie actor he wanted more. In the following years, he worked on series and soap operas such as Sexo Frágil ("Weak Gender", 2003), JK (2006), and Paraíso Tropical ("Tropical Paradise", 2007).

In 2007, Moura played Captain Nascimento on the acclaimed Tropa de Elite ("Elite Squad"), directed by José Padilha. The movie was a big hit launching Moura's career internationally after receiving the Golden Bear for Best Film at the Berlin Festival. The sequel Tropa de Elite 2 – O Inimigo agora é outro ("Elite Squad – The Enemy Within", 2010) received an even better reception by critics and broke the record for bringing more than 11 million Brazilians to the big screens.

Besides acting and directing Moura also is the main vocalist and guitar player of the band Sua Mãe ("Your Mother"). The group has one album entitled, The Very Best of the Greatest Hits of Sua Mãe.