Maitê Proença Gallo (b. São Paulo, 28 January 1958) is a Brazilian actress.

Biography

Maitê Proença was born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1958. Both of her grandfathers were Portuguese. Her mother was Margot Proença, a philosophy and music teacher who died when Maitê was 12. Her father was Eduardo Gallo (died in 1989). She has a younger brother, René Augusto Proença Gallo, born in 1963. Proença is currently single. As a child, Proença studied in an American school and speaks fluent English, as well as French, Spanish and Italian. She attended the undergraduate psychology programme at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo and the University of São Paulo where she studied journalism. Proença also attended a number of courses at the Sorbonne at the end of the 1970s while living in France. Between 1977 and 1979 she traveled around the world to Europe, Asia and Africa. This habit she has maintained and she has travelled to more than 70 countries. In 1979, Proença had a serious car accident. She underwent two surgerical operations and had to stay in bed for almost a year.

She met her ex-husband Paulo in 1982. They stayed together for 13 years and divorced shortly after the birth of their only daughter Maria, born in 1990. Proença is currently single.

She has worked on Brazilian telenovelas, films and plays. Her role in the telenovela Dona Beija was her first major TV success in Brazil, Portugal and some 50 other countries where it was exhibited.

Proença has written two books. Her first book, Entre ossos e a escrita, published in 2005, contained the best of her essays. The second book, Uma Vida Inventada, sold 100,000 copies in Brazil and was exported to Portugal. She has also written two plays one of which, As Meninas, won her several prizes. She has a column in the Brazilian magazine Época.

She has been a TV host for Video Show (1983), Programa de Domingo (1987) and Saia Justa (2006/2007). In 2006, Proença wrote her first theater play, Achadas e Perdidas. In 2002, she made her debut as a theater producer with the play Buda.

In 2009, due to controversial remarks on the Brazilian TV show Saia Justa, Proença prompted public outrage in Portugal and was accused of being lusophobic, though she has since affirmed numerous times her love for Portugal. She has since denied the accusation and recorded several apologies, as well as issuing one on her official blog. Proença emphasized that despite the misunderstanding, she is from recent Portuguese ancestry and likes Portugal and the Portuguese. For about a week, the affair was discussed or reported on several Portuguese television networks and major newspapers.