Elmano Sancho is bilingual in Portuguese and French and is fluent in Spanish and English. He holds a diploma in training for actors from the School of Theatre and Cinema/ESTC in Lisbon and has also studied in Madrid (at the Royal School of Drama/RESAD), São Paulo/Brazil (at the University of Sao Paulo/ECA-USP) and in Paris (at the Conservatoire National Supérieur d´Art Dramatique de Paris/CNSAD).
He has performed in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Belgium, Brazil, Iran, Japan, Turkey, Greece, Cap Vert, Colombia, USA, Chili and Cuba. He has worked with Carlos J. Pessoa / Teatro da Garagem, Elsa Valentim / Teatro dos Aloés, Jorge Silva Melo /Artistas Unidos, Carlos Avilez /TEC, Ensemble, Sociedade de Atores, Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota, Rogério de Carvalho, Ana Tamen, Miguel Abreu, Maria João Miguel, Paulo Lage, António Aguiar, Bruno Freyssinet, Pedro Gil, Barney O´Hanlon. He was part of the first European Theatre Company directed by Virgínio Liberti and Annalissa Bianco. He was also part of the XVIII edition of École des Maîtres directed by Arthur Nauzyciel. He worked in Paris as an actor at Comédie Française with Bruno Bayen and Jacques Allaire.
He was nominated as best actor for the Golden Globe awards with Love isn´t to be trifled with (2012), Herodiade (2013),The Mistress of the Inn (2014) and Display (2018).
He also was nominated as best actor for SPAAUTORES with Love isn´t to be trifled with (2012) and The Playboy of the Western World (2014) and Lulu (2020).
He was nominated as best actor of the year 2012 by TimeOut magazine with Herodíade.
In September 2014, he directed and performed Misterman by Enda Walsh and received the SPAAUTORES/2015 award of best actor.
He worked and studied with SITI COMPANY (Anne Bogart) in New York from October 2014 to May 2015.
In December 2015, he directed his second play I Can´t Breathe and received the Special Mention of the Critics’ Prize from The Portuguese Theatre Critics Association/2016. The play has been nominated as best play for the SPAAUTORES 2016.
In January 2017, he presented his third play I Don´t Want To Die in Portugal and the National Theatre in Colombia.
In 2018, he was awarded with The Mirpuri Foundation Carlos Avilez Theatre Award with The Last Station and received the scholarship from DGLAB/dramaturgy to write the trilogy The Holy Family.
In Cinema and TV, he worked with Keren Ben Rafael, Odile Brook, Jorge Paixão da Costa, Hugo Diogo, Solveig Nordlund, Jérôme Cornuau, Jorge Queiroga, Valéria Sarmiento, Benoît Jacquot, Sérgio Graciano, Yuri Alves, Francisco Manso, Vicente Alves do Ó, João Cayatte, Alessio Maria, Federici, Marie Brand, Cristèle Alves Meira and Marco Pontecorvo.
He also holds a licentiate degree in Economics from the University of Oporto and a licentiate degree in Translation (French/Spanish/English) from the New University of Lisbon.
