Fernanda Montenegro began her artistic life in the theater with the play "Alegres Canções nas Montanhas" in 1950. In the late 40s she was translating and adapting famous theater plays to radio. In the following years she worked with other great actors like Sérgio Britto, Cacilda Becker, Nathália Timberg, Cláudio Corrêa e Castro and Ítalo Rossi.

In the early 60s she moved to São Paulo where she worked on many theater plays and also started working on television. Her first soap opera was "Pouco Amor Não é Amor". In 1964 she started working for cinema as well. Her first film was "A Falecida".

As time went by, more and more successful soap operas and plays came up and she received many prizes. She was later called "The First Lady of Brazilian Theater". In cinema, after some not very famous films, she worked on "Eles Não Usam Black-Tie" (1981), largely applauded by the critics.

Her success on television and theater continued, but her cinema career, although it never stopped, was largely unnoticed until 1997, when "O Que é Isso, Companheiro?", a nominee for the Oscar of Best Film in a Foreign Language, was released. In 1998 "Central do Brasil" enchanted the world. This film, another nominee for the Oscar, was the highest moment of Fernanda Montenegro's cinema career, once she was a nominee for Best Actress. The Oscar was not given to her, but the actress got the Berlin prize. In 1999 she had another great achievement on TV, "O Auto da Compadecida", later cut to a film format and released in the movie theaters.