Bio

Leandro Matos was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. With degrees in Film and in Writing for Television, he spent an extra 18 months studying writing for films in one of Rio’s most regarded film schools. He has also taken classes with established writers in Brazil, as with Robert McKee in the U.S., and had a sitcom selected by Columbia University Writing Program for Columbia’s first intensive classes in Rio, where his project was one of 14 series pilots to be written under the supervision of Columbia professors and screenwriters Joe Cacaci and Trey Ellis.

He started his writing career in 2008, in the sitcom Cilada, Brazil’s most celebrated tv series at that time.

He spent 5 years, from 2009 to 2014, working as a writer and script analyst for Total Entertainment, a big production company in Brazil, with huge box office successes, such as Se Eu Fosse Voce, Assalto ao Banco Central e Diva. There he created and was the head writer of 2 sitcoms, Os Figuras and De Cabelo em Pe, and worked as head writer for a third sitcom, Se Eu Fosse Voce A Serie, which came out to be a big success in the ratings, becoming the second most-watched series of Fox Channel Brazil during its run, behind The Walking Dead. He also wrote 5 feature films for Total Entertainment; Diva a 2, Apaixonados O Filme and Love.com have already been released. Love.com is available on Netflix worldwide. His fourth film, Minha Familia Perfeita, will be released by 20th Century Fox in 2019.

During that same period, he also worked as a freelance writer, creating scripts for several sitcoms, like Morando Sozinho and Na Fama e Na Lama.

His time at Total Entertainment was very educational; besides working as a writer he had the opportunity to learn different aspects of the business. He helped prospect future projects with investors and was especially interested in marketing and release strategies, learning a variety of functions such as trade marketing, promotions, premiere production, and writing teasers and special pieces for advertising the films and series.

After his contract with Total Entertainment was finished he went back to being a freelance writer full time, writing scripts for different companies and shows such as the 15th season of Superbonita, the sitcom Ribanceira, and the variety show Encontro com Fatima Bernardes, a daily show at Rede Globo, the biggest television company in Brazil.

In 2016, his sitcom pilot Bachelor’s Guidebook was awarded 5th place at Cannes Screenplay Contest. Later that year he moved to Sao Paulo to break new grounds as a screenwriter. There he participated in the development of Samantha!, Netflix’s third Brazilian series available worldwide and wrote the Brazilian adaptations of 2 international hit shows, Drunk History, which helped double the audience for Comedy Central and the reality show First Dates. He’s developing 5 feature film scripts based on his ideas for different production companies, all slated to start production in 2019-2020, one of which won a Governmental Development Grant in 2018.

In 2018, Leandro became a permanent resident in Canada, being able to explore new possibilities in his career. He has already two spec scripts and two tv series bibles & pilots in English and is looking forward to starting showing them to possible partners and buyers. Additionally, he started working as a script supervisor, doing 3 short films and taking classes to improve his skills.

Intro

I’m looking to improve my skills as a writer and a script supervisor. I’m fairly new to script supervising, but I have been trained in the matter and discovered a great pleasure in performing this duty on set. It’s a completely different thrill than writing is, and one that I am currently enjoying a lot, and I cannot wait to get new projects to work on.

As a writer, at the moment I have 2 spec scripts ready to start showing – one coming of age drama, the other a romantic comedy. I also have two pilots ready to show, a drama inspired by the show Thirtysomething and a comedy series.

Also, I am looking to start showing my scripts around Canada, and getting a chance to introduce myself, and my work, to agents, managers and people from the industry. Being a foreigner, I am still learning how to navigate the North American industry, and beginning to see how things are done here.

Having 12 years of experience as a writer, I believe I have a lot to contribute to the industry.

Reel/Clips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mxtfq-9VABU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nyx-5XBg5aM