Taís Araújo

Who is Taís Araújo?

Taís Bianca Gama de Araújo is a Brazilian actress. She was the first black Brazilian actress to be a protagonist in a Brazilian telenovela, Xica da Silva, in Rede Manchete. She was also a protagonist on another telenovela, Da Cor do Pecado in Rede Globo channel.

Araújo, who is of mixed African, Austrian and Portuguese descent, said that the skin color variation found in her family never called her attention, even though she claimed that she used to be the only black girl at her upper-class school and that the people who looked like her there were only the ones "who cleaned the floor, the servants".

Araújo became the first black actress to be a protagonist of a telenovela in prime time of the largest Brazilian television network, Rede Globo. She is the main actress of the telenovela Viver a Vida. She said this is very important, saying: "When I was little, I did not have anything that looked like me! Now a black girl can have references on TV, including as a standard of beauty."