Felipe Pacheo – Brazilian-British actor

Felipe Pacheo is an actor who was born in Campinas, Brazil. He grew up in the North West of England and currently lives in South Ealing. He has lived in many different places, including Chicago, Chester and London. Felipe’s first formal training for acting he received was at Columbia College Chicago. He studied theatre and performance at the University of Surrey and has had training with Off The Ground Theatre, the Young Everyman and Playhouse and Frantic Assembly.

Felipe has been a practitioner for Frantic Assembly since 2019, engaging and exploring the Frantic Method with performing arts students nationally and internationally. He is also a co-founder and joint artistic director of physical theatre company Buried Thunder and was part of New Adventures’ Overture cohort 2020/21. He played Roderigo from the Shakespeare play, Othello, in October, in Frantic Assembly’s award-winning take on the production in October 2022.

My schools:

I went to Mostyn House Primary and then Calday Grange Grammar. We arrived in the North West from Brazil in 2000, and Mostyn were specialists in English as an additional language (EAL) at the time. It unfortunately closed some years ago, but I remember it incredibly fondly, as well as Calday!

My favourite teacher:

It’d be terrible to single out any one teacher from the entirety of my education, so huge shout outs to: Mr and Mrs Bates, (Mr Bates especially for letting me captain the football team) Mrs Hough (art), Mr Lowe (my first ever drama teacher), Mr Meigh and Mr Kavanagh (drama), Mr Wilson (geography), Mr Evans (RE and the most chilled form tutor ever). I’m sure I’m forgetting many!

My favourite subject at school:

Given what I do now, drama would be the obvious choice, but I also absolutely loved loved loved biology. I actually had a place to study biological sciences at university when I finished school, before a particularly poignant conversation at dinner made me change my mind.

My favourite extra-curricular activity at school:

At primary school – footy. I remember it so clearly – horrible sweaty shin pads and stinking boots, having a worldie of a game in goal… And then at secondary school, I did all the plays I could from Year 9 onwards, and joined my local youth theatre, Off The Ground. That really shaped me as a person and as a professional too. I reckon I couldn’t be much luckier, really!

School dinners or packed lunch?

I usually had school dinners, and absolutely loved them! Lunch was always such a good time of the day…

Did you always do your homework?

I was a good student, I have to say! I always did my homework, and actually, I think it made me more relaxed by the time exams came around, because I’d already done a lot of work, you know? Mr Meigh always used to say that’d be the case.

My favourite book:

We studied The Great Gatsby in English, which I thought was brilliant. I am a massive Lord of the Rings fan as well, so The Hobbit didn’t disappoint either.

My dream career at school:

An actor, for sure.

What two words would describe you as a teenager?

Outgoing and intense!

My funniest/best memory from school:

When I look back I feel extremely privileged to have had the school experience I did. I can honestly say that I loved school. There were so many beautiful and hilarious moments, but memories of school plays and youth theatre shows always stand out.

All I can think about right now is our performance of Les Misérables at Calday. I played Thénardier and that was just a riot. As you can imagine, I am a bit of a show-off, so making people laugh in an otherwise pretty somber and tearjerking story was my idea of the best evening ever.