Catarina Furtado is a Portuguese

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 television presenter, actress and UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador

UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador

UNFPA Goodwill Ambassadors are celebrity advocates of the United Nations Population Fund and use their talent and fame to advocate for the human right of reproductive health.-Current Goodwill Ambassadors:...

. Catarina was born in Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

 in 1972 and is daughter of RTP

Rádio e Televisão de Portugal

Rádio e Televisão de Portugal, S.A.,commonly known as RTP, is Portugal's public service broadcasting organization. It operates four terrestrial television channels and three national radio channels, as well as several satellite and cable offerings....

 journalist Joaquim Furtado

Joaquim Furtado

Joaquim Furtado is a Portuguese journalist, reporter, television anchor and documentary film director. He worked during almost all his entire career for state-run RTP television network, including in RTP 2 for many years. He became a well-known media personality during the Carnation Revolution...

. Throughout her successful career on television which started in the early 1990s, she has worked for SIC and RTP television networks, as well as the radio stations Rádio Comercial

Rádio Comercial

Rádio Comercial is a commercial radio station in Portugal aimed at young and adult people. It has a broad format including contemporary, pop and rock music. It is among the most listened radio stations in the country.-History:...

 and RDP Antena 3

RDP Antena 3

Antena 3 is one of the three national radio channels produced by the Portuguese public broadcasting entity Rádio e Televisão de Portugal, the others being Antena 1 and Antena 2....

. While an underage girl, Catarina had a short non-talking role in the film Non, ou a Vã Glória de Mandar

Non, ou a Vã Glória de Mandar

No, or the Vain Glory of Command is a 1990 Portuguese film directed by Manoel de Oliveira. The film, starring Luís Miguel Cintra and Miguel Guilherme, depicts a series of defeats from the entire military history of Portugal - the assassination of Viriathus, the Battle of Toro, the Battle of...

 directed by Manoel de Oliveira

Manoel de Oliveira

Manoel Cândido Pinto de Oliveira, GCSE is a Portuguese film director born in Cedofeita, Porto. He began working on films in the late 1920s, but did not receive international recognition until the early 1970s. Since the late 1980s he has been one of the most prolific working film directors and...

. Later on she starred in films like Killing Time (an English film that appeared in the Cannes Film Festival

Cannes Film Festival

The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...

), Fatima (an Italian movie by Fabrizio Costa), Anjo da Guarda and Pesadelo cor-de-rosa, among others. Catarina's first big success was as a presenter on the TV show Top + on RTP, a Portuguese program featuring popular music videos and the national weekly record chart

Record chart

A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....

. It was a music show that first illustrated Catarina's natural talent and beauty, and led to her hosting a MTV Portugal

MTV Portugal

MTV Portugal is a 24-hour general entertainment channel serving Portugal.The channel was launched on July 1, 2003 replacing MTV Europe within the territory. In its initial stages MTV Portugal shared similar content to MTV Spain and MTV Italy, while also airing programming from MTV US and MTV Europe...

 program on the SIC network, years before the Portuguese MTV has been founded. She went on to do a variety of shows, including Hunting For Treasure (Caça ao Tesouro), in SIC television. That show was often shot on location in Portugal's smaller towns where Catarina arrived in a helicopter

Helicopter

A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...

.

Personal life

Catarina attended the Conservatório Nacional (until 1990) specializing in dance

Dance

Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....

. She also trained in journalism and studied drama

Drama

Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

 at London's International School of Acting from 1995 to 1997, as well as Lee Strasberg

Lee Strasberg

Lee Strasberg was an American actor, director and acting teacher. He cofounded, with directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as "America's first true theatrical collective"...

's Method Studio in England. She married to João Reis, actor, and has a daughter, Maria Beatriz (born in 2006) and a son, João Maria (born in 2007). Catarina Furtado is rated on the site AskMen.com

AskMen.com

AskMen.com is a free online men’s web portal, with international versions in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia.-History:...

..

Films and television

• Cidade Despida (2010)
• Dá-me Música
• A minha geração (2008)
• Dança Comigo (2006/2007)
• Pequenos em Grande (2005)
• Operação Triunfo
  Operação triunfo
  Operação Triunfo is the Portuguese version of the original Star Academy...
  
   (2003)
• Pequenos e Terríveis (1999)
• Uma Noite de Sonho (1995)
• Caça ao Tesouro (1994)
• Chuva de Estrelas (1993)
• MTV Portugal
  MTV Portugal
  MTV Portugal is a 24-hour general entertainment channel serving Portugal.The channel was launched on July 1, 2003 replacing MTV Europe within the territory. In its initial stages MTV Portugal shared similar content to MTV Spain and MTV Italy, while also airing programming from MTV US and MTV Europe...
  
   (1992)
• Top + (1991/1992)
• Gala Globos de Ouro
• As Mais Belas Canções de Natal
• SIC No País do Natal
• Gala Portugal Fashion
• Uma Aventura
• O Lampião da Estrela
• Catarina.com
• Fátima
• A Ferreirinha
• Natal dos Hospitais