At 29, São Paulo actress Larissa Noel leads “Prazer, Zezé! The Musical” and debuts in Netflix’s “Radioactive Emergency” series.
Larissa Noel landed the lead role in “Prazer, Zezé! The Musical” through a mix of chance and determination. It started with a dramatic reading of the script. A month later, she was called in to audition. “Around 7 PM, the producer called saying I had gotten the part. I cried — it was a celebration at home,” she recalls.
The show offers a critical tribute to Zezé Motta, one of Brazil’s most iconic Black actresses, whose artistic legacy was built against a backdrop of deep structural inequality. Written as an original text, rehearsals began in January with a cast of eleven performers. The run goes from March 20 to April 21 at Sesc 14 Bis, in São Paulo.
A shared journey
The parallels between Larissa and Zezé Motta go well beyond the script. Like her subject, Larissa faced family resistance when she chose to pursue acting. Her mother and grandmother believed the profession offered neither financial stability nor real opportunities for Black women. Still, she left a nursing degree behind to study dramatic arts.
“Zezé has always been a reference for Black people who follow the history of Black artists in Brazil. We speak the same language when it comes to the decisions of an artistic life,” Larissa says. The connection feels personal: “Zezé is intense, bold, joyful — she blends the innocence of youth with the maturity that comes with time.”
This is definitely a very special moment in my career, and I am extremely happy to be doing it this way — telling Zezé’s powerful story.
A career built with consistency
Larissa began her acting journey in 2013 with theater company Cottal. In 2016, she landed her first professional show, “Cartola, O Mundo é um Moinho”, the opening piece of Fato Produções’ samba trilogy. Over the years, she worked alongside names such as Adriana Lessa, Isabel Filardis, Augusto Pompeo, Eduardo Silva, and Flavio Bauraqui.
Her inspirations include Tatiana Tiburço, Naruna Costa, Sydney Santiago, Dona Ivone Lara, Clementina de Jesus, Cartola, Viola Davis, and Nina Simone. But her deepest roots are with her early theater friends: “Even if we were all just ‘playing theater,’ we did it out of love — and that inspired me to pursue a career.”
From the stage to Netflix
Beyond theater, Larissa has steadily built a screen presence. She appeared in “3%” on Netflix and “Desejos S.A.” on Disney+. Her latest project is “Radioactive Emergency” (“Emergência Radioativa”), a Netflix series that reconstructs the 1987 radioactive accident in Goiânia, available on the platform since March 18.
In the series, she plays one of the first contaminated victims, sharing the screen with Johnny Massaro, William Costa, Alan Rocha, Bukassa Kabengele, Ana Costa, and Victor Salomão. “It was 8 days of filming, diving into 1980s Goiânia — a radioactive disaster that felt like the end of the world,” she describes.
The role was the result of years of focused preparation. Larissa trained with acting coach Estrela Straus to sharpen her technique for TV and film. “When the opportunity to be on set arrived, it felt like watching all those years of study and growth come to life,” she reflects.
Event Info
- Show: Prazer, Zezé! The Musical
- Run: March 20 to April 21, 2026
- Venue: Sesc 14 Bis, São Paulo, Brazil
- Series: Radioactive Emergency — available on Netflix since March 18, 2026
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/larisnoel/
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