A Brazilian filmmaker, screenwriter, actor, photographer and multimedia artist, involved with contemporary art, installations, art objects and performances, Neville Duarte Almeida was born in 1941 in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte. Raised by a Methodist Christian family, he studied theater at the Scholastic Theatre of Minas Gerais and participated at the local Center of Film Studies, where he started to work as an filmmaker.

Some of his transgressive, avant-garde films were censored or banned by the Brazilian military dictatorship, after which he went on to directing films aimed to a more commercial approach. His 1978 film "Lady on the Bus", starring Sônia Braga, was a box-office champíon and still holds its place as the the third highest-grossing Brazilian film of all time.