A native of Lisbon, Cristiana began her directing career at the age of 21 with a short film about Burlesque stripper, Dita Von Teese. Aired on the Discovery Channel to wide acclaim, it was subsequently featured on the UK Friday Night Show with Jonathan Ross and led to her nomination as Best Newcomer at the London Rushes Film Festival.

In 2008, she started a series of advertising projects for Johnnie Walker’s anti drink & drive campaign with Lewis Hamilton and Mika Hakkinen, which were premiered at the Singapore Grand Prix. She continued to work with Lewis, Mika and Jenson Button on a regular basis filming for Johnnie Walker across the globe.

The calibre of her output across a range of sectors – from sport to fashion – is absolutely first class. Her work is a study in talent direction and shot selection. In the course of her advertising career in London and internationally, she has worked with various top athletes and celebrity actors: Lionel Messi, Roger Federer, the Arsenal Football team, Tang Wei, Koyuki, Momoi, Cheryl Cole, Davina McCall, Holly Willoughby, Salman Khan, Fahriye Evcen, Ipek Soylu, Shraddha Kapoor and Heike Makatsch, among others.

Her early success got the attention of Shots Magazine where she got featured on Issue 49. Her local success in Portugal has led to articles in Vogue, Maxima, Expresso, Publico, etc. as well as an invitation to feature in a national poster campaign for TMN.

She was the subject of local and international press attention when she shot the beautiful music video for Dido “The Day Before the Day”. Filmed in the town of Nazare in the North of Portugal as part of a series of shorts / music videos that Dido commissioned to various directors around the world, Cristiana’s piece was voted as the favourite on the project’s website.

She has directed major national Portuguese campaigns for brands such as NOS, Super Bock, Samsung, Continente, L’Óreal to name but a few. Her TVC for Oliveira da Serra ‘Rain of Olives’ was voted Portuguese Ad of the year in 2011 and she won another award in 2013 with a spot for Portuguese bank CGD. In 2019 she shot a piece for the Portuguese Football Federation doing a promo for the female futsal team. This film has won various awards in the Portuguese Creatives Club and was also nominated as one of the best pieces of the year in the VOW Awards in New York.

In 2021 she was invited by Bruno Nogueira to direct the TV Series “Princípio, Meio e Fim” for Sic, with Bruno Nogueira, Nuno Markl, Filipe Melo and Salvador Martinha as authors and an all star ensemble cast that includes: Albano Jerónimo, Bruno Nogueira, Jessica Athayde, Nuno Lopes and Rita Cabaço.