Alice Braga

Alice Braga (born April 15, 1983 in Sao Paulo, Brazil) is a Brazilian actress. She has appeared in several films, most notably as Angelica in 2002's highly acclaimed City of God. In 2007 her first American blockbuster, I Am Legend, was released. Sonia Braga is her maternal aunt.

Born and raised in Brazil, Alice Braga’s exposure to the world of acting came at an exceedingly early age. As both her mother and aunt are actresses, Alice often accompanied the two to film sets and it didn’t take long for the little girl to develop an appreciation for all things theatrical. She started out her career by appearing in school plays and even a few commercials, but it wasn’t until she was a teenager that she began seriously pursuing roles in television and movies.

In 1998, Alice Braga made her debut in a Portuguese-language short called Trampolim, but quickly receded back into anonymity to finish her schooling.

Alice’s big break came in 2002 after she was cast as Angelica in the critically acclaimed smash City of God, for which she received a Best Supporting Actress nomination from the Cinema Brazil Grand Prize. She took more time off for university, and then followed that up with appearances in a pair of well-regarded South American films - 2005’s Lower City and 2006’s Only God Knows -- and also took on a role on the popular Brazilian television program Carandiru, Outras Historias. Alice made her English-language debut in 2006 with a starring role opposite Brendan Fraser, Mos Def and Catalina Sandino Moreno in Journey to the End of Night, which premiered at the 5th Annual Tribeca Film Festival and eventually went straight to video in North America.

In 2007, Alice Braga was cast in the Will Smith blockbuster I Am Legend, and the drama Crossing Over (which stars Harrison Ford, Sean Penn and Ashley Judd). And she was cast in the 2008 David Mamet flick called Redbelt, in which she appears alongside Tim Allen and Chiwetel Ejiofor).