BIO
Hi! I'm Zero Pilnik (they/er/elu)
I'm a gender-bending, accordion-playing storyteller. As an actor and writer I aim to provoke audiences by breaking taboos and subverting norms.
I was born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil, where the coffee is strong and so are the women. My mother was a ballerina and my grandmother was a pianist, so I have been on stage my whole life. A nomad at heart, I've lived in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, ÄŒeský Krumlov, and Berlin – where I have been based since 2018, acting in and writing for both theater and film/TV.
Recent projects include: Last Call Blue (short film), Eldorado - Everything the Nazis Hate (Netflix doc), The Trouble Out There (medium-length film), Gasoline Queen (Ballhaust Ost), and 27 Club (Wein Salon, Framed) – my imagined rock'n'roll funeral. In the fall of 2021 I was a literary resident of Goyki3 Art Inkubator, where I wrote the pilot of Brutes, a queer fantasy Western TV series. The show was nominated for the "Pretty Original" Award, selected for a live pitch at the 2023 Seriencamp Conference and is currently under option. My other series, the dramedy Silver Future, was one of the "Pitch-Your-Pilot" finalists at the Berlin TV Series Festival 2023. I also had a chance to pitch at the European Film Market during the 2024 Berlinale.
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I'm a recipient of the 2017 Tim Disney Prize for Excellence in Storytelling Arts for my original play People Who Love Move Mountains, as well as fellowships from the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe (2023), Akademie der Künste (2021), LABA Belin (2021), Fonds Darstellende Künste (2021, 2022) and flausen+ (2020). I hold a BFA in Acting with a minor in Creative Writing from California Institute of the Arts, and am an alumnus from the National Theater Institute. Most recently, I partook in DFFB/Serial Eyes' Diverse Storytelling in Digital Short Form Series and TorinoFilmLab's Series Lab Talents programs.
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In 2024, aside from acting in series and films, I'm also working on Treif, a series about my Sephardic Jewish immigrant family; the short film Nevermind, which I will also star in; and my first (top secret, still untitled) feature film. You can also catch me performing in the bars and cabarets of Berlin as my drag king alter ego Mojo, the Sword Swallower of Switzerland.