Aguinaldo Filho

Early life

Born in Jaragua do Sul, in Santa Catarina, Brazil, to Aguinaldo José de Souza and Abigail Melchiades de Souza, "Naldo" as he was called at home, was one of 5 children, born to a time when the only home entertainment was the radio. In his home Joinville, he stayed up late at night in his darkroom, scanning the radio waves, (BBC, Voice of America, Radio Moscow, Radio Prague, Swedish Broadcasting Corporation, The Vatican etc.), which sparked his curiosity about the magic of the radio. He then acquired a correspondence radio course degree at the age of 14. Aguinaldo fulfilled his mandatory military service at 18, and afterward moved to Rio de Janeiro, where his broadcasting career began.

Career

After Naldo left the military at 19, he moved to Rio de Janeiro to be with his parents. One late evening, while debating whether to return to school or get a job, Naldo was listening to a local radio station, and had an epiphany. The announcer was stumbling over the words in the broadcast, and Naldo thought to himself, "If he can get paid to this, I can do it better than that and get paid more". The next day Naldo took a streetcar to downtown Rio and auditioned for 3 radio stations, and subsequently got the job at 2, Mayrink Veiga and Radio Relógio, and started work the very next day as a radio announcer.

Shortly after, Naldo began work at the two radio stations and also enrolled in a drama school, Fundação Brasileira de Teatro, studying to be an actor. He began dubbing films for television, and working as an actor in small parts for various film productions and TV soap operas. In the early 1960s, Naldo met Maria das Dores de Souza, a fan of his work at Mayrink Veiga, and they had their only child, Katia Cristina in 1962. As he continued his work in radio and TV, an opportunity came in the form of Voice of America looking for international broadcasters to work in Washington DC. Naldo applied and was approved. Enthusiastic about his future prospects, he married Maria, quit the radio stations, and prepared to move to America. However, when the head of Voice of America Brazilian Services came to meet all the approved candidates, Lilian Lamachia, informed Naldo that she liked him very much but he needed more experience. To compensate for having Naldo leave his other two jobs, Lilian arranged for him to work at the American Embassy's recording studio in Rio. Naldo continued work at the American Embassy for the next 3 years, meanwhile his marriage with Maria das Dores had dissolved. By 1965 Naldo was still eager to travel abroad and that opportunity came in the form of a job working as an International Broadcaster for Radio Sweden. In March 1966 Naldo arrived in Stockholm Sweden, and began his European tour.

Life outside Brazil

A year later, Naldo left his job at Radio Sweden and attempted to Study Drama at RADA in London. He was denied entrance due to lack of funds, and continued on to France. He spent a year hitchhiking Europe, and in July 1967 he was rewarded a scholarship from Gulbenkin Foundation to study linguists and philology at the Faculty of Letters in Lisbon Portugal.

Upon completion of his studies he continued to travel Europe, which included investigating different radio stations across Europe, and interviewed at Radio Prague, which eventually contracted Naldo. He worked at Radio Prague as an International Broadcaster for one year and met his second wife, on the first day of work, Misha. During this period, Naldo frequently traveled to London to work as a Portuguese professor and voice over for BBC. At the time in Prague, "Dubcek Spring" was crashed under the Soviet Invasion, and returned to communism, and Naldo decided to move to London with his new wife Misha. 9 months later Naldo has his second child, a boy, Phillip, while living in London. He continued his work for BBC as an "outside contributor" and received his British Green card. After 3 years the travel bug got hold of him again, and in 1972 he was offered a position at NHK radio in Japan. With a flight routed through New York City, while there, at the last minute he received notice that the position had been filled. To make the most of the situation, and finding he enjoyed NYC, he took a job as an office clerk at the Brazilian Trade Bureau. One year later he contacted Lilian LaMachia, at VOA (Voice of America), and informed her that he was in America, with more experience, and available. 6 months later she called him to Washington DC and offered him the job that was rightfully his 10 years earlier, but denied due to inexperience. Naldo then moved to Washington DC with his wife and child, where he spent 15 years working the night shift for VOA. During this time Naldo was news anchorman for VOA, wrote cultural programs, interviewed people, broadcast the launching of several shuttles to outer space, covered the first visit of the Pope to the USA, was a reporter for Brazilian Radio Capital, and was the voice of many famous television ministers, including "Rex Humbard" from in the 1980s, "Ben Kinchlow" of The 700 club, and Morris Cerullo.

After divorcing Misha 1987, Naldo quit VOA, and decided to study at Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California, While visiting Washington DC for a nieces wedding, he met his current wife Rosa DeSouza, asked her to marry him 5 days later. She then moved to Santa Barbra while he finished his studies at Brooks, graduating in 1990, earning a BA in Media and Cinematography. Naldo then moved to Los Angeles with Rosa, and while paying his bills working as a Traffic Law Instructor he began knocking at the door of the film industry for a jobs as a cinematographer. One year later, while perusing Variety Magazine, Naldo read the following headlines, "Ted Turner Goes South". Global Media Mogul Ted Turner was opening the international TNT Network to South American countries. Naldo offered his expertise as an announcer, writer, translator, voice over, and newly acquired BA to TNT and was hired on the spot.

In December 1990, Naldo and his wife Rosa moved to Atlanta Georgia where the TNT headquarters are located. He began work as a TV producer and became the voice of the station. During his time at TNT, he wrote, developed, and coordinated original productions, promos, in-house & corporate videos and radio spots. As well he was the simultaneous translator for The Grammy's, American Music Awards, SAG Awards, The Emmy's and many other live television broadcasts. In 2000, he was offered 2 jobs, one at Direct TV as a producer, and then 3 months later, as an anchorman at PanAmerica Sports Network, both located Miami Florida. PanAmerican Sports Network wanted exclusivity, so Naldo let go of his job with Direct TV and stayed on at PSN. 2 years later the station went bankrupt, and Naldo and Rosa decided to go into business for themselves, and bought a TCBY franchise at Hollywood Beach in Florida. However this was an ill-timed move, because of 9/11 and the falling of the Twin Towers, happened just a few months later. This event essentially dried up the tourism industry of Miami long enough to bankrupt his savings and investments. Feeling uncomfortable in America, he decided to do the unimaginable, return to his families in Florianopolis, Brazil.

Since 2004, Naldo and his wife Rosa DeSouza live on the island of Florianopolis, where Rosa has written and published 9 books, all of which Aguinaldo's voice narrates. Naldo works as an actor, voice over, and narrator of audio books, while awaiting the next move.

Works

Animal Planet: Guerilla Warfare, Main actor on the feature film "MUAMBA", shot in 2008, directed by Chico Faganelo. LIP-SYNCH DUBBING: The voice of Rex Humbard in Brasil for over five years. The voice of Ben Kimchlow (Club 700) The voice of Cary Grant for many years in Brazil. The voice of several characters in many different movies. Regular characters on animation shows and MC Narrator for Cisneros (The Kitchen) Miami.

RADIO AND INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING JOURNALISM:

International Broadcaster. Wrote, produced and voiced feature news materials and press opinion for the following stations: Voice of America, Washington, D.C., 13 years, writing, translating and broadcasting news as an Anchor-Man, Reporter, Radio-Spots Creator/Editor. Editor/Supervisor for VOA’s Breakfast Show to Brazil, supervising four people. BBC, London, 3 years; Radio Sweden, Stockholm, 1 year; Radio Prague, Czech Republic, 1 year. Commercial Radio MC and Announcer for several radio stations in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Awards

6 times Deans List at Brooks Institute of Photography, Graduated Best of Class at Brooks Institute of Photography, Member Santa Caterina Academy of Letters and Arts since 2010, Member of Screen Actors Guild.