Maria Fernanda Cândido is a Brazilian actress, television presenter, and former model.

Real success came in 1999. After sending a videobook to TV director Jayme Monjardim, of Rede Globo, she was invited to audition and soon joined the cast of Terra Nostra soap-opera in the role of an Italian young woman, Paola.[5] For that job, she hired a dialect coach in order to improve her Italian pronunciation.[6] The role led to her winning the prestigious Troféu Imprensa[7] and in 2000 she was voted the most beautiful woman of the century in a poll conducted by Fantástico a Sunday evening TV show. At the time, she was compared to the young Sophia Loren, the Italian legend, paralleling the latter's beauty and talent.[8] Like her character in the soap-opera, Cândido's great-grandmother, arrived in Brazil around 1880. The actress is a descendant of the Bortolacci and Malvezi families on her mother's side and the Guiraldelli on her father's side, both coming from Venice, northern Italy. "The funny thing is that I go by the Cândido family name, highlighting the only part of my heritage that is actually Brazilian," she stresses. Another coincidence between her own family's history and the soap-opera, is that her family settled in the same area where the plot was set, the Oeste Paulista, the western region of the State of São Paulo. The character is also the daughter of Italian Anacleto, who works on a coffee farm, the same occupation of her great-grandparents when they arrived in Brazil.[9] As part of her research to play Paola, she watched films such as Bicycle Thieves, Marriage Italian-Style and The Gold of Naples, and to better understand the context in which her character would have lived, she also watched 1900, Bernardo Bertolucci.

Maria Fernanda Cândido é uma atriz, apresentadora e ex-modelo brasileira. Faz parte do conselho diretor da Casa do Saber. Sendo filhas dos comerciantes José Reginaldo e Agda Cândido. Aos 4 anos sua família se mudou para Curitiba, onde viveu até os 12 anos, quando se mudaram novamente para São Paulo com a família. Na adolescência estudou no Colégio São Luís, na Avenida Paulista.

Мapия Фернанда Кандидy всегда давала возможность общественности говорить о своей персоне, поступая неожиданно. Она прекратила успешную карьеру модели в нескольких странах ради получения образования. В студенческие годы отметилась в роли ведущей музыкального проекта на телеканале, но известность обрела после съемок в сериалах. Истории "Земля любви", "Акварель надежды", "Подарок" принесли Марии не только популярность, но и государственные награды. Зрители были готовы смотреть сериал просто при условии участия в нем любимой актрисы. А она в 2005 году пропала с экранов, решив посвятить все время семейной жизни. Только после рождения второго сына артистка решила вернуться в профессию. Постоянная занятость на съемках и семейная жизнь не стали помехой для занятия общественными проектами. Мария курирует социальные центры, помогающие больным детям, и старается быть полезной обществу не только созданием новых персонажей.