Ana Cristina de Oliveira, (born 1973 in Lisbon, Portugal), is a Portuguese actress with dual American citizenship.
Ana left her home country in 1991 after signing a modeling contract with a Japanese agency. She lived and worked as a model in Tokyo, Paris, and NYC, gracing covers and fashion editorials for magazines such as, Elle, Marie Claire, Vogue, GQ, Cosmopolitan. She walked the runway for designers like Calvin Klein, Jean Paul Gaultier, Comme des Garçons, and featured in advertising campaigns for Oscar de la Renta, Versace, Loree Rodkin, Neiman Marcus, H&M and Mercedes-Benz, before moving to Los Angeles in 1995 to pursue her acting career.
By 1998, Ana was an alumna of the Stella Adler Academy of Acting in Los Angeles, and was cast in films, commercials, TV series, and music videos, including: Melissa Etheridge’s, I’m the Only One; Bryan Adams’s, The Only Thing That Looks Good on Me is You; and the late Chris Cornell’s, Can’t Change Me.
One of the many commercials that Ana starred in was the famous Levi’s Jeans Washroom ad., directed by Tarsem Singh. It was so controversial that it was banned in the US and in other countries could only be aired after the 9pm curfew.
Ana’s special affinity with playing offbeat characters has led her to work with distinguished directors such as Tony Scott, Gary Marshall, Zack Snyder, Peter Berg, and Michael Mann, as well as many leading actors; among them, Colin Farrell, Brad Pitt, Ben Stiller, Benicio Del Toro, and Harrison Ford.
In Europe, her movie debut was Amore con la ‘S’ Maiuscola (dir. Paolo Costella), an Italian romantic comedy which takes place in a small southern Italian coastal town. Lead roles in several Portuguese films followed, including João Pedro Rodrigues’ Odete (English title, Two Drifters) where Ana’s performance received critical acclaim. Nathan Lee, for The New York Times, wrote: “Her name is Odete, and she is brought to life –multiple, irrational lives– by the feral, enigmatic actress Ana Cristina de Oliveira”; The Village Voice described her as having given “a ferocious performance”. She received a Portuguese Golden Globe nomination, and also won Best Actor, Prix d’Interpretation Janine Bazin, at the Festival International Du Film Belfort, France.
Her role as the traumatized Sveta, the mistress of a brutal sex-trafficking gang boss in the multi award-winning movie Carga (dir. Bruno Gascon, 2018), garnered several nominations and two wins for her; one from Prémios Cineuphoria 2019, and the other from the GDA Foundation, both in the category of Best Supporting Actress. American film critic, David Duprey wrote, “There’s not a lot of dialogue between the few characters in Carga, […] When someone does talk, often it stings with trauma, as when one woman (Ana Cristina de Oliveira) explains to another (Sara Sampaio) why she’s been brought here and how she’s going to pay what she owes. I won’t spoil a single word of it, but it’s one of the most disturbing few minutes I’ve seen on film in a long time.” Ana will also star in Gascon’s upcoming movie, Sombra (2021).
In the past few years, Ana has appeared regularly in several Portuguese TV series. One in particular, Onde Está Elisa? Is a Chilean adaptation of a dark family thriller in which Ana plays the mother of Elisa, a teenager who suddenly vanishes.
In 2013, Ana graduated in Art History with Highest Honors from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
She currently splits her time between Europe and the United States.
