Why The Secret Agent’s Wagner Moura Has the Internet Buzzing

This isn’t Wagner Moura’s first rodeo.

In fact, longtime fans of the Brazilian actor, who rose to international fame with 2015’s Narcos, are thrilled the rest of the population seems to be finally catching up to the 49-year-old’s star power with The Secret Agent—a role that officially earned the actor a Best Actor Oscar nomination. (See all nominations here.)

The Brazilian film—also nominated for Best Picture, Best International Feature Film and Best Casting at the 2026 AcademyA wards—sees Moura play former professor Armando, who finds himself a political target amid the country’s dictatorship in 1977 and is forced to flee persecution.

So far, Moura’s performance has earned him Best Actor at Cannes Film Festival, nominations at the Critics Choice Awards, Golden Globes and—despite what many felt to be a snub by the newly renamed Actor Awards—is generating Oscar buzz.

For Moura himself, The Secret Agent was one of those perfect moments in which the joy he felt on set resulted in a project he is equally proud of.