André Vianco

Biography

André Vianco was born in São Paulo on October 10, 1976, but raised in the neighboring town of Osasco. "Vianco" is not his real surname, but rather a pen name adopted by him as an homage to the street in which he grew up during his childhood, the Dona Primitiva Vianco Street. Vianco was always into horror films and literature, and cites Stephen King, Eiji Yoshikawa's Musashi, Edgar Allan Poe, Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles, Henry James, Victor Hugo and old Tales from the Crypt comics as some of his favorite readings and major influences. He began his career working as redactor for radio station Jovem Pan's journalism department, where he stayed for two years, and also had a part-time job at a credit card company. He self-published his first book, O Senhor da Chuva, in 1998.

After being fired from his job at the credit card company, Vianco used his FGTS money to publish his breakthrough work, the vampire novel Os Sete, in 1999. Set in the fictional coastal town of Amarração, Rio Grande do Sul, the book tells the story of a group of seven vampires from 16th-century Portugal, awakened from their deep slumber in late 20th-century Brazil after their bodies are found by two divers in a sunken carrack. A critical and commercial success, it has sold over 50,000 copies as of 2008. The book caught the attention of publisher Novo Século Editora, which re-released it just one year later and was responsible for publishing many of Vianco's subsequent works. Os Sete has also spawned the sequels Sétimo and the trilogy O Turno da Noite, and the prequel Vampiros do Rio Douro, a graphic novel in two volumes. In 2009, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Os Sete, Vianco himself wrote and directed a 3-part TV pilot based on the O Turno da Noite trilogy, but it was never picked up for a full series. In 2012 he teamed up with Davi "Deivs" Mello and illustrator Denilson Santtos to adapt O Turno da Noite into a graphic novel series; the first installment, Escuridão Eterna, came out amid mixed reviews.

After publishing the supernatural thrillers Sementes no Gelo and A Casa in 2002, he returned to vampire fiction with Bento in 2003, the first installment of the O Vampiro-Rei series; it was followed by A Bruxa Tereza (2004) and Cantarzo (2005), and by the prequel A Noite Maldita (2013), part of the As Crônicas do Fim do Mundo series.

In 2010, after many years with Novo Século, Vianco signed with Editora Rocco to release O Caso Laura, which came out in the following year. Also through Rocco he published the children's book series Meus Queridos Monstrinhos, which has three volumes as of 2014. In 2015 he released through Giz Editorial's imprint Calíope the ghost novel Estrela da Manhã.

In 2016, Vianco signed with Editora Aleph to re-release all of his early works. In the same year, he published his sixteenth novel (and twenty-second literary work overall), Dartana, through Rocco's imprint Fábrica231. It is his first science fiction novel so far.

Alongside Wanda Nogueira he co-directed the short film A Flor in 2006 (written by his wife, Marisa Samogin, and based on Carlos Drummond de Andrade's short story "Flor, Telefone, Moça"), and also directed A Última Partida in 2007 (based on a short story by himself) and Saia do Meu Quarto in 2012 (written by Estêvão Ribeiro). All three were produced by Criamundos, an independent film production company created by Vianco and Samogin in 2006. In an interview from 2008 he stated that he was involved in a film adaptation of his novel A Casa, reported to be in pre-production, but since then no further announcements regarding it were given. In the same interview he also said that he was planning to adapt Os Sete and Bento as well.

Vianco currently lives in Osasco, with his wife and three daughters.