Ivo Canelas
Ivo Canelas is a Portuguese actor, born in Lisbon. With a career of more than 30 years, he is recognized for his participation in numerous film, theater and television productions.
He has a degree in Theater Studies from Lisbon [Theatre and Film School|Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema] and studied at the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute, in New York, with a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
Career
Cinema
He made his film debut in 1997 in the short film Menos Nove, directed by Rita Nunes. Soon after, in 1998, he participated in the short film It's Just a Minute directed by Pedro Caldas and written by Jacinto Lucas Pires.In 2002 he joined the cast of by Manoel de Oliveira. In 2007 he won the Portuguese Golden Globe for Best Actor for the films by Jorge Paixão da Costa and by António-Pedro Vasconcelos.
In 2012 he played Apeles Espanca in the film Florbela directed by and produced by , a role that earned him the nomination for best actor in the first edition of the Sophia awards from the and the Best Actor CinEuphoria award. In the same year he joined the cast of A Estrada 47, a Brazilian, German, Italian and Portuguese co-production directed by .
In 2015 he participates in the international production directed by and produced by . The following year he plays Lucas Mateus in , a film written by Nuno Markl and directed by Luis Galvão Teles.
More recently, in 2022, he co-starred in the short film w ritten and directed by , which was on the Oscar’s shortlist of 15 pre-nominated short films. A project with great international visibility, which received the support of actor Elliot Page's production company and was widely acclaimed by the trans community, all over the world.
Theater
In 1991 he made his debut at Teatro da Cornucópia in Amo-te by . Between 1993 and 1994 he was part of the group of actors of the Passage del Terror a very successful attraction at the Lisbon Amusement Park. In 1996 he joined the cast of Aqui Está Ela, by Nathalie Sarraute, directed by Diogo Dória.In 1997 he began his work with , with Prometeu I, II, III by Jorge Silva Melo, with whom he returned to work the following year in O Fim ou Tende Misericórdia de Nós, then in Downfall of the Egotist Johann Fatzer by Bertolt Brecht, in 2000, O Navio dos Negros as the protagonist, in 2001, and Quartet by Heiner Müller, in 2016. Silva Melo becomes a decisive mentor in his career as an actor and will shape the way he practices his craft throughout his career.
In 1999 he joined the cast of Peaches a very successful comedy directed by José Wallenstein at Teatro Aberto. In 2000, he worked with director Solveig Nordlund in the show Night is Mother to the Day by Lars Noren and, in the same year, he participated in Boca Cheia de Pássaros, a dance theater show at Teatro Nacional D. Maria II, staged by and Francisco Camacho.
In 2004 he participated in Capricho directed by . The following year he worked for the first time with director Tim Carroll in The Tempest at . He returned to work with this director as the protagonist of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus, with Diogo Infante, at Teatro Nacional D. Maria II, a role for which he received the Portuguese Golden Globe for Best Theater Actor in 2011.
In 2014, he once again starred in the show Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo, directed by Miguel Seabra, at , which earned him a nomination for Best Theater Actor at the Portuguese Golden Globes.
Between 2018 and 2023 he stages and performs the monologue by Duncan MacMillan, produced by Hugo Nóbrega from H2N, with scene and actors’ direction by Dora Bernardo. The show was a huge success, having toured the country for 4 years with more than 280 sold-out shows and around 30,000 spectators. This project earned him several awards, including the Solo Show Award by the 2020 Theater Guide, integrating the list of 30 best shows of 2019 by and having won the 2021 Marketeer Award in the Art and Culture category.
Television
He became famous for his portrayal of Joca in the series O Fura Vidas. Between 2008 and 2011 he participated in the series Liberdade 21, produced by and directed by Patrícia Sequeira and . I n 2009 he joined the cast of the mini-series Conexão, directed by Leonel Vieira on RTP.Between 2010 and 2012 he participated in the Canadian series Living in Your Car, directed by David Steinberg, among others. Soon after, he played the role of Xavier in the RTP series Os Filhos do Rock. In 2019 he joined the cast of Sul, an RTP series produced by Arquipélago Filmes and directed by . In 2021 he plays the Minister of Defense in the Netlfix series Glória, directed by Tiago Guedes.
Recently, in 2023 he joined the cast of the RTP series ', directed by Filipa Amaro. In 2024 he plays the role of Doctor in the RTP series ' directed by . In 2025, he will participate in Projecto Global, a series by about the FP25, and in , a Portuguese and Icelandic co-production, filmed in both countries.