Nina de Pádua has returned to TV Globo after 21 years away to make a guest appearance in the nine o'clock telenovela Quem Ama Cuida.
A first look photograph released from the production reveals the 70-year-old actress in character as Judge Nina Hoffmann. She presides over the trial of Ademir, an influential and elitist criminal defence lawyer portrayed by Dan Stulbach. In the image, Pádua is styled in a checked blazer, wearing rimless glasses balanced on the bridge of her nose.
The courtroom scene is scheduled to air during the episode broadcast on 14 September. The production is written by author Walcyr Carrasco, marking a reunion between the dramatist and the veteran performer more than two decades after their previous television project together.
Return to TV Globo and past television work
The guest role marks Pádua's first appearance in a TV Globo telenovela since 2005, when she played the character Eliete in Alma Gêmea, another widely watched serial written by Carrasco. TV Globo, headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, is Brazil's largest commercial television network. Its flagship nine o'clock telenovelas serve as the nation's premier dramatic showcase, traditionally commanding prime-time audiences numbering in the tens of millions and setting national cultural talking points.
Carrasco is one of Brazilian television's most prolific and successful authors, responsible for a long series of ratings hits for the network. Pádua, who built an extensive career across Brazilian stage, television, and cinema, first rose to prominence in major television dramas in the late 1970s and 1980s.
Despite her 21-year absence from TV Globo, the actress worked steadily across Brazilian television drama during the intervening period. She performed in multiple major telenovelas produced by rival commercial broadcaster TV Record, appearing in Chamas da Vida in 2008, Balacobaco in 2012, and the high-profile biblical drama Os Dez Mandamentos in 2016.
Trial storyline and cast in Quem Ama Cuida
In Quem Ama Cuida, Pádua enters the storyline as Ademir faces a legal reckoning. Ademir is established as an influential and elitist criminal defence lawyer who is married to Dora, played by Mariana Ximenes, and is the father of Pedro, played by Chay Suede.
Within the plot, Ademir is depicted as a controlling figure with an abusive personality who enforces a strict conservative environment at home, barring his wife from working. His public standing and private life unravel when female employees come forward to report a sexual harassment scandal, triggering a total collapse across both his family relationships and his professional career.
Pádua joins an extensive ensemble cast assembled for the prime-time soap opera. Alongside Stulbach and Ximenes, the production features Flávia Alessandra, Agatha Moreira, Tata Werneck, Isabel Garcia, João Vitor Silva, Deborah Evelyn, and Breno Ferreira.
