Martha Canga Antonio
Who Is Martha Canga Antonio?
Martha Canga Antonio is a Belgian actress, musician, and performer of Angolan descent. She was born on June 12, 1995, in Mons, Belgium. Today, she is one of Belgium’s most compelling and versatile creative voices.
As an actress, she appeared on screen in Black by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (2015), Eva Cools’ Cleo (2019), Roomies (2023) on VRT, and the French Netflix series Lupin (2023). As a musician, she performs and records under the stage name Martha Da’ro.
Her work, moreover, does not sit neatly in any one box. Her work, free from disciplinary boundaries, stems from personal reflections rooted in her experience of being in the world. These reflections gradually take form — whether through music, film, or performance.
Early Life: Mons, Liège, Mechelen, and the Road to Brussels
A Belgian Life with Angolan Roots
Martha Canga Antonio was born on June 12, 1995, in Mons, Belgium, to parents who had immigrated from Angola. She was raised in Liège and later in Mechelen, two cities that gave her a rich understanding of Belgium’s cultural and linguistic diversity.
Of Angolan origin, Martha Canga Antonio — her real name — has explored every corner of Belgium. Born in the South of the country and raised in the North, she now lives in the heart of the kingdom, Brussels, the European capital.
Music Before Everything: Soul’Art in Mechelen
Before acting and before her solo music career, Martha found community and artistic expression in music. Apart from acting, Antonio is also a prolific singer who started her career as a member of the musical group Soul’Art. Based in Mechelen, the multilingual hip hop collective gave her a foundation in slam poetry and collaborative performance. It was there that she began developing the voice — both literal and artistic — that would later carry her across international stages.
Education: Communication Management in Brussels
Martha studied communication management at Erasmus Brussels University. However, she paused her studies to pursue acting professionally. That decision redirected the course of her life entirely.
Acting Career: From a Casting Call to the World Stage
Black (2015): A Breakthrough That Changed Everything
While still studying, Martha was selected to play the lead role of Mavela in Black — a gang thriller directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. The film drew immediate international attention.
The film is centered around two young gangsters who seek love, but are impeded by the rivalry between their gang allegiances. The plot line is influenced by William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Arthur Laurent’s West Side Story, but relocates the story to street gangs in modern-day Brussels, Belgium.
The result was extraordinary. In 2015, she won the Best Actress award at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and received an Ensor. Furthermore, in 2016, she was nominated as a Shooting Star at the Berlinale.
The Berlinale Shooting Stars programme selects only ten emerging European actors each year. Being chosen placed Martha among Europe’s most exciting new talents at just 20 years old.
She also received a nomination for the Magritte Award for Most Promising Actress for the same role — Belgium’s most prestigious film award.
Building a Screen Career (2018–2023)
Martha did not rest after her breakthrough. She continued taking on significant screen roles across television and film.
In 2018, she joined the cast of Over Water, a Belgian thriller series, playing Ticha. Then, in 2019, she appeared in three notable productions. She played Amala in A Girl from Mogadishu, Jeanne in Adoration, and Myra in Eva Cools’ Cleo.
Additionally, in 2019, she appeared in the British crime series Baptiste, playing Lina.
In 2022, she starred in Roomies, the popular VRT series, as Telma — a role that brought her to a broad Flemish television audience.
Lupin (2023): International Recognition on Netflix
In autumn 2023, she appeared alongside French superstar Omar Sy in Lupin, a hit series produced by Netflix. She played Fleur Belanger in the show’s third season.
Putain (2024) and The Kollective (2025)
Martha continued to expand her screen presence into 2024 and 2025. She played Nana in Putain in 2024. Then, in 2025, she appeared in The Kollective, an internationally co-produced thriller series.
The series follows a group of intrepid young citizen journalists who find themselves tangled in a global web of government lies and corruption after exposing nefarious activities of rogue governments. The European Alliance, including France Télévisions, Rai Fiction, and ZDF, and Hulu (U.S.) premiered the series in 2025. Martha played the role of Claude.
Music Career: Martha Da’ro and the Sound of the Diaspora
The Soul’Art Collective and Early Years
Before her solo debut, Martha built her musical foundations within the Soul’Art collective in Mechelen. There, she gained experience in slam and ensemble performance. Those early years taught her how to hold a crowd and how to make a lyric land.
Solo Debut: “Summer Blues” (2018)
In 2018, she started her career as a solo singer under the name “Martha Da’ro” and released the single “Summer Blues.” The single introduced her distinctive voice to the Belgian music scene — airy, poetic, and emotionally precise.
Cheap Wine & Paris EP (2020)
Her EP Cheap Wine & Paris, which marked her emergence on the national scene, was released in 2020. Critics welcomed it as the arrival of a singular voice. It combined soul, electronica, and a quietly cinematic atmosphere that set her apart from her contemporaries.
Philophobia — The Debut Album (2023)
The most significant milestone in Martha Da’ro’s music career arrived on November 17, 2023, with the release of her debut full-length album Philophobia.
Martha Da’ro released the album Philophobia, on which she confronts her murky relationship with love in a dreamy mix of soul, R&B, and pop.
The album’s title comes from the Latin for “fear of falling in love.” Martha has spoken candidly about its personal weight. “That’s contradictory, of course, because at the same time I’ve never let my heart into my music as much as I have on this album,” she said.
For Philophobia, Da’ro collaborated with classically trained pianists, composers, and orchestrators, with each song’s conception formulated first on the piano. In capturing her ideas this way, Da’ro was able to meticulously craft each song like a theatrical scene, even imagining its characters, places, and weather.
The album contains 10 tracks and runs for approximately 28 minutes. Its tracklist includes “Prologue — Another Dreamer,” “Flesh,” “Sirens,” “Mr Fear,” and “Pretty Ugly,” among others.
Philophobia confirmed her breakthrough and brought her to international stages such as Ancienne Belgique, Rock en Seine (FR), and MENT Festival (SL).
“Diaspop”: Coining a Genre
During a France 24 interview in 2023, Martha coined the term “Diaspop” to describe her music — a genre that blends diasporic experience with contemporary pop and electronic sounds. Her new Philophobia album crosses genres and continents, reinventing trip-hop and bringing some breathtaking melodies into the great history of the Angolan diaspora.
2025 Singles: “Burning” and “Novo +244”
Martha continued releasing music into 2025. She released the single “Burning” and collaborated with Angolan-Portuguese producer VANYFOX on “Novo +244” in February 2025. VANYFOX featured “Novo +244” ft. Martha Da’ro on NTS Radio in August 2025. The track reflects her Angolan roots and her continued engagement with the sounds of the diaspora. nts
Theatre and Transdisciplinary Work: Melancholia and Holy
Melancholia (2021): The First Transdisciplinary Work
Her first transdisciplinary work was created in the context of the Customs & Borders programme at Decoratelier in 2021. Melancholia was a replica of her bedroom, filled with sketches and diaries, leading into a second space: a mini-labyrinth whose endpoint featured a video of herself speaking about her fears — for those who felt at ease enough to make it all the way through.
It was deeply personal. It was also deeply public. That tension between inner experience and shared space became the signature of her performance practice.
Holy (2025–2026): A Landmark Work
Holy is Martha Canga Antonio’s most ambitious project to date. It is her music-theatre directing debut. It premiered in 2025 and toured into 2026, including three nights at the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels in June 2026.
At the crossroads of theatrical and musical practices, Martha Canga Antonio presents HOLY, a sensory experience that explores the sacred as a state of being in constant reinvention. Moving through different spaces collectively, performers and audiences alike explore different ways of being together. Neither fully a concert nor entirely a performance, HOLY creates a space that is at the same time personal and collective — where audiences shed frameworks, certainties, and images of self to allow inner lights and echoes to emerge.
Constructed from and around a constellation of multifaceted talent, HOLY arose out of a collaboration between a maker-writer (Martha Canga Antonio), two creative producers (Marie Umuhoza and Vivi Focquet), a scenographer (Jozef Wouters/Decoratelier), and a cast of hybrid performers who cross the boundaries of music and dance.
The cast includes Ashley Morgan, Lazara Rosell Albear, Jhaya Caupenne, Jazz Sanusi, Magdelaine Hodebourg, and Rose Samy.
Holy performed at Kaaitheater, VIERNULVIER, De Singel, and the Ancienne Belgique — some of Belgium and the Netherlands’ most prestigious cultural venues.
Filmography at a Glance
| Year | Title | Role | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Black | Mavela | Film |
| 2018–2020 | Over Water | Ticha | TV series |
| 2019 | Baptiste | Lina | TV series |
| 2019 | Adoration | Jeanne | Film |
| 2019 | Cleo | Myra | Film |
| 2019 | A Girl from Mogadishu | Amala | Film |
| 2021 | Lupin | Fleur Belanger | Netflix series |
| 2022–2023 | Roomies | Telma | TV series |
| 2023 | Temps Mort | Lucille | Short film |
| 2024 | Putain | Nana | Film |
| 2025 | The Kollective | Claude | TV series (Hulu) |
Music Discography at a Glance
| Year | Title | Format |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | “Summer Blues” | Single |
| 2020 | Cheap Wine & Paris | EP |
| 2023 | Philophobia | Album (10 tracks) |
| 2025 | “Burning” | Single |
| 2025 | “Novo +244” (with VANYFOX) | Collaboration |
Awards and Recognition
| Year | Award | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival | Best Actress | Won |
| 2015 | Ensor Award | Best Actress | Won |
| 2015 | Magritte Award | Most Promising Actress | Nominated |
| 2016 | Berlinale | Shooting Star | Selected |
Personal Life: Brussels, Art, and Identity
Martha currently lives in the Marollen neighbourhood of Brussels — a historically working-class, multicultural district that suits her cosmopolitan creative spirit.
She was born to Angolan parents and grew up navigating Belgian life in multiple cities and linguistic communities. Her music, her acting, and her performance work all carry the weight of that experience. Furthermore, she speaks Portuguese and identifies deeply with her Angolan heritage — a connection made explicit in her music, especially “Novo +244.”
