Ricardo Napoleão began his professional career as an actor in Berlin in 1990 with the play Vento, directed by Raimund Hoghe, playwright of Pina Bausch’s dance-theatre company.
He performed as actor and co-author in the play November, about the fall of the Berlin Wall, with the group Theater der Klänge in Düsseldorf.
In Paris, he took part in two workshops led by Ariane Mnouchkine at the Théâtre du Soleil, and graduated in 1994 from the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq.
He wrote the preface to the Brazilian edition of Jacques Lecoq’s book The Poetic Body.
Ricardo is currently a research fellow at ICNOVA – Institute of Communication at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, and is undertaking a research internship at IRCAV – Institut de recherche sur le cinéma et l’audiovisuel, part of Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3.
Combining artistic creation with academic inquiry, he develops projects as an author and researcher in the fields of performing arts, cinema, and contemporary media, and regularly participates in courses, lectures, and workshops both in person and online.