Iara Bittencourt

Iara grew up in Madureira, in Rio's North Zone, above her mother's hair salon. She learned to samba at a neighbourhood samba school at nine, studied physical education and spent her early twenties running sunrise workout classes on the sand at Ipanema. A friend signed her up for the island reality show Ilha Aberta as a joke. She finished second, but her one-liners and her habit of leading the whole house in warm-ups made her the season's breakout name. She now splits her weeks between Rio and São Paulo for brand work, still teaches one beach class every Sunday, takes her açaí without granola and keeps a paper notebook of every carnival rehearsal date.