Cláudia Celeste

Cláudia Celeste (Rio de Janeiro, 1952 - Rio de Janeiro, May 13, 2018) was a Brazilian actress and dancer. She was the first trans woman to act in a Brazilian soap opera. Born in the Vila Isabel neighborhood, she received the artistic name of Cláudia Celeste when Carlos Imperial watched her show “Once upon a time in Carnival”, at Teatro Rival, in 1973.

She started her dancing career at the nightclub "Beco das Garrafas". In 1976, she was elected "Miss Brasil Trans" (at the time Miss Brasil Gay) and with the title, she caught the attention of producers who invited her to act in the 1975 film Motel. In 1977, Daniel Filho invited Cláudia to participate in the soap opera Espelho Mágico, alongside Sônia Braga, performing as a chorus girl in the nucleus where the characters worked in a theater. Her participation made headlines in newspapers of the time such as "The first transvestite on TV" and it was through the press that Daniel Filho learned that the dancer was a transsexual. Cláudia had filmed other scenes, but with the repercussion of the first one that was aired, the direction of Globo decided not to broadcast the other scenes, thus ending her first performance in soap operas.