Rafael Lessa

Rafael Lessa is a writer, director, and producer with over 15 years of experience working for players like Amazon, Netflix, and Gaumont. He is a member of the Television Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the organization behind the Emmy Awards. His work was awarded at the Berlin, Locarno, and Venice festivals. He transitions between commercially successful TV projects and artistically relevant films on the international stage.

His feature film as a screenwriter, Rule 34, a sexually charged political drama, won the Golden Leopard for Best Film at the Locarno Film Festival.

He is currently working as a screenwriter for a new Netflix series based on the best-seller Happy Old Year from I’m Still Year writer Marcelo Rubens Paiva and writing a new feature for RT Features, producers of Oscar-winning films I'm Still Here and Call Me By Your Name.

Rafael was the head writer and co-executive producer for season one of the show Lov3, which premiered on Amazon Prime Video in February 2022 and won the Brazilian Writers' Association award for best comedy series. He wrote seasons one and two of Samantha!, a Netflix original series.

Most recently, Rafael finished working as a head writer on the series Brazilian Cowboys for Globo, the 4th biggest network in the world. The series was produced by Latin America powerhouse O2 Films (City of God). His latest feature as a screenwriter was released in the first semester of 2025: That's Not Cheating, produced by Disney.

Rafael has also collaborated with filmmaker Alex Moratto as a screenplay consultant for his films Sócrates and 7 Prisoners, which were awarded at the Independent Spirit Awards and the Venice Film Festival.

Rafael began his screenwriting career with the short film Tá, winner of the Teddy Award at the Berlin Film Festival in 2008. His next shorts, as writer and director, won awards and screened at festivals around the world, such as Guadalajara, Rio, and Outfest. 

A Berlinale Talents and Talent Project Market alumnus, he holds an MFA degree with Honors from Columbia University Film School and a joint MBA in the Business of Entertainment from the University of Southern California Business and Cinematic Arts schools. Rafael is based in Brooklyn, NY, and is represented by Zero Gravity Management in the U.S. and F.R. Productions in Brazil. Since 2023, he has been a member of the Brazilian Filmmakers Collective.