Wagner Moura's Real Name: Wagner Maniçoba de Moura

Quick answer: Wagner Moura's full name is Wagner Maniçoba de Moura, the form given as a Library of Congress official variant. He was born on June 27, 1976, in Bahia, Brazil. Catalog notes disagree on the town: one says Bahia, another specifies Rodelas, Bahia. He is usually billed as Wagner Moura. He became widely known for a Golden Globe-nominated performance as Pablo Escobar in the Netflix series Narcos (Variety).

Real name and early life

The Library of Congress heading is "Moura, Wagner, 1976-," with the official variant "De Moura, Wagner Maniçoba, 1976-." Notes in that record give the birth date as June 27, 1976, in Bahia, and, in one case, Rodelas, Bahia. This page records the conflict rather than choosing a town that the cited sources do not settle. He works professionally as Wagner Moura in both Brazilian and international film and television productions.

Career highlights

Variety, in a May 2024 report, said Moura broke through internationally with his Golden Globe-nominated performance as Pablo Escobar in Narcos. The same article identified him as a star of the film Civil War and said he would headline The Secret Agent, a political thriller directed by Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho (Bacurau).

According to Variety, The Secret Agent was then in pre-production, with MK2 Films planning to introduce the project to buyers at the Cannes Film Market. The story is set in the late 1970s, during the final years of Brazil's military dictatorship. Moura was to play Marcelo, a man in his 40s who is on the run, traveling from São Paulo to the seaside city of Recife during Carnival week in the hope of reuniting with his son. The film was being produced by Brazil's Cinemascopio, the company behind Bacurau and Aquarius, and by MK Productions, whose credits Variety noted include Oscar-nominated films such as Joachim Trier's The Worst Person in the World.

This page records the 2024 Variety account of that project and does not treat later festival or awards claims as confirmed unless they appear in a source used here.

Name notes for searchers

Wagner Maniçoba de Moura is the documented full name; Wagner Moura is the short form used in credits and publicity. Library of Congress records also file him as De Moura, Wagner Maniçoba. The cedilla in Maniçoba sometimes drops out in English databases.