Daniela Melchior

Daniela Melchior dos Reis Lopes Pereira (born 1 November 1996) is a Portuguese actress. Born in Almada, Setúbal, she launched her career in 2014 with a role in telenovela Mulheres. She went on to appear in the teen drama Massa Fresca (2016) and telenovelas Ouro Verde (2017) and A Herdeira (2018). Melchior made her film debut in 2018 with The Black Book. She provided the Portuguese dubbing for Gwen Stacy in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and was cast in the comedy drama Parque Mayer in the same year. Her performance in the latter earned her a nomination for the Sophia Award Best Actress.

She made her international breakthrough as Cleo Cazo in the DC film The Suicide Squad (2021), which earned her a nomination for Best Newcomer at the Portuguese Golden Globes. Subsequently, she took on minor roles in English-language films, including Marlowe (2022), Assassin Club (2023), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023) and Fast X (2023).

Early life
Daniela Melchior dos Reis Lopes Pereira was born on November 1, 1996 in Almada, Lisboa. She studied theater in her adolescence.

2014–2020: Portuguese film and television
Melchior started her career in 2014 with several Portuguese film and television productions, including Ouro Verde, A Herdeira, The Black Book, and Parque Mayer. She also provided the Portuguese voice for Gwen Stacy / Spider-Woman in Sony Pictures Animation's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, who is voiced by Hailee Steinfeld in the original English version.

2021–present: Hollywood work
In 2019, James Gunn was on the search for an actress to portray Cleo Cazo for The Suicide Squad, leading Melchior to travel from Lisbon to Atlanta for the audition. Initially, her manager encouraged her to adopt a glamorous appearance for the initial pre-audition meeting, which didn't sit well with the producers. However, during the subsequent audition, Melchior transformed herself into what she describes as a "weirdo, creepy" character, and this change resonated with James Gunn, leading to her eventual hiring for the role. In 2021, The Suicide Squad was released, featuring Melchior in the role of the unique Batman villain Ratcatcher, known as Cleo Cazo, making her the first actress from Portugal to play a character in a DC film. Director James Gunn described her as being "the heart of the film", and she has the second-longest screen time.

In 2022, she appeared in Marlowe directed by Neil Jordan. By March 2022, she joined the cast of the tenth Fast & Furious film titled Fast X, Vin Diesel, and The Suicide Squad co-stars John Cena and Michael Rooker, as well as Scott Eastwood, who appeared in Suicide Squad, the predecessor to her DC comics film. In June 2022, she announced that she would collaborate for the second time with James Gunn in his MCU film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. She was the first Portuguese actress to appear in an MCU film. In August 2022, she was cast in Road House, a remake of the 1989 film starring Patrick Swayze.