Biography
Renée is the daughter of a Frenchman and a native of Alagoas, a Brazilian State. Her paternal great-grandfather was an entrepreneur in the industrial sector, and the family owned a car factory in Montrouge, a city on the outskirts of Paris. Her paternal grandmother was from a circus family and worked as an actress and acrobat.
In 1913, three years after arriving in Brazil, her great aunts, sisters of her paternal grandmother, founded the Great Circus Nerino, where at the early age of only five months old, she debuted on stage, playing the role of baby Jesus, in the Christmas show. The Circus turned out to be the place where he would spend her vacations, and, eventually, inspire her to become an actress. In 1964 the circus closed.
At the age of sixteen, she moved to São Paulo, in search of personal and financial independence. It was there that, after a successful audition, and some acting classes with Russian instructor Eugenio Kusnet, she debuted in film, in the leading role of director Antunes Filho's Compasso de Espera (1969).
In 1972 she was hired by Rede Globo, Brazil's largest TV production network, as a contract player and moved to Rio de Janeiro. Her career achieved new heights as she played a variety of roles in successful telenovelas for the next three decades.
In the early 90s, she decided to continue her studies and attended Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RJ). From this point on, she limited herself to only a few special appearances so as not to hinder her studies and, in 1998, after completing her undergraduate degree in History, she began to dedicate herself exclusively to her work as a historian and to academic life.
