The Life

About

Adriana Ferreyr was born on 18 May 1983, which on the Hebrew calendar is 6 Sivan 5743, the first day of Shavuot, the same day on which King David was born and died according to Jewish tradition.

Her acting career began in the theater at the age of eight, when she joined the company of director Fernando Peltier in Salvador. She performed in several productions, including O Jardim das Borboletas, O Jardim das Abelhas, for which she won an award for Best Child Actress, Turma da Mônica, and The Sound of Music.

Alongside her theater work, she appeared in numerous television commercials, including two national McDonald’s campaigns, one of which aired in both Brazil and Portugal. She also trained in classical ballet under Louise Sandy in Salvador, and later with a director of the Joffrey Ballet at Ballet Dalal Achcar in Rio de Janeiro.

At 15, she participated in an exchange program at Monroe-Woodbury High School in New York, where her coursework included advanced mathematics, physics, and AP Physics Electromagnetism, while attending acting, dance, and singing classes on Saturdays at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. She was awarded a scholarship to Bard College at Simon’s Rock, which she declined in order to return to Brazil.

At 16, she enrolled in law school at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), and became an apprentice and protégé of the acclaimed actress and acting teacher Camilla Amado. During this period she performed the title role in August Strindberg’s Miss Julie, the one-woman play Valse Number 6 by Nelson Rodrigues, and Helena in Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well, among others. She also reached the final round of auditions for the title role in TV Globo’s miniseries Presença de Anita.

After two years at PUC-Rio, she landed the lead antagonist role in the prime-time SBT telenovela Marisol (2002).

She later returned to the United States to study at the University of Southern California School of Dramatic Arts, and subsequently pursued a double major in Financial Economics and Philosophy, with a concentration in Computer Science, at Columbia University.

Ferreyr is also passionate about social entrepreneurship, with a particular interest in helping disadvantaged children. She has worked and volunteered with a number of charitable organizations, including the Association of the Pioneiras Sociais, Caminhos da Luz, and Fundação ABRINQ, a non-profit dedicated to the defense of human and civil rights for children and adolescents.

In 2006 she founded the Tijuana Children’s Foundation, an organization dedicated to helping children living in poverty on the streets of Tijuana, Mexico.