With formal training first at Balleteatro Professional School of Contemporary Dance and Theatre (Porto) and afterwards at Superior School of Theatre and Film (Lisboa), Ágata de Pinho has been working as an actor, having their life bound to theatre and film for more than 20 years. They’ve acted in several short and feature films, working with directors such as Cláudia Varejão, Isadora Neves Marques, Filipa Reis and João Miller Guerra, Gabriel Abrantes, Miguel Clara Vasconcelos, Alexander David, among others.
“The bitches ditch” was the first play Ágata wrote, directed, produced and performed in. It was a retelling of the greek myth of Cassandra as a way to speak of the acts of violence perpetrated against women as weapons of war and how those voices have been systematically downplayed and discredited. “New Creation”, Ágata’s second play, was a “low cost science fiction theatrical production” that whilst digging for the historical remembrance of portuguese female science fiction writers now forgotten, imagined what a planet inhabited only by women could look like. Both plays were co-produced by D.Maria II National Theatre in Lisbon, in 2015 and 2016.
Having always loved creating stories, in the past years Ágata has been more devoted to film - screenwriting and directing. “Blue has no dimensions” (AZUL), the first film they wrote, directed, produced and performed in, premiered at IFF Rotterdam in 2022 and went on to screen in several more festivals. “AZUL” is a semi-autobiographical tale of a person that believes they’ll disappear when they turn 28 years old in a few days. It delves on themes such as mental health, faith, intergenerational trauma and embodying your own self. “Raw+Porous”, their second short film, will debut in IndieLisboa 2025. Evoking the human, the organic and the extraordinary, it’s an obsessive love story and sexual entropy between two people that surrender to absolute desire.
Ágata’s first feature film, “Femmes de Ménage”, is based on their real life experience working as a housekeeper in Luxembourg for a few years, where they met several other immigrant women. With these transformative encounters as inspiration, the film tells the story of how these women in overworked and precarious conditions start to self-organize and fight for a better and more dignified life. “Femmes de Ménage” was granted a writing and development fund by ICA (Portugal) and Film Fund (Luxembourg), as well as production funding from ICA. This project is currently in writing and seeking co-prodution funds.
Last update of this profile: 2025
