Hi, Roger Leao here!

I’m a music composer, writer, and producer - among some other things (born Rogério Souza Leão Castello in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).

Over the past ten years, I’ve been mostly known for my work with advertising in NYC. That said, I’ve been working professionally with music for 30 years now, even before studying design at one of Rio’s most respected universities.

In 1999, after a four-year degree in Design at one of Rio de Janeiro’s most prominent universities, I had the chance to move to Germany and focus entirely on music. I studied Jazz Guitar at the Dresdner Konservatorium, before returning to Brazil in 2005. Even though I continue to work in writing, production, and management, it’s always about music, including my journalistic and entrepreneurial endeavors.

In 2012, with more than 80 music-related magazine columns, I wrote the first book in Portuguese about guitar effects, published by H. Sheldon. Around the same time, I started collaborating with some of the world’s leading music production houses, which ended up dictating my day job for the decade to come.

Since then, I’ve been twice Grammy-nominated, worked on the MTV awarded, triple-platinum track Bola Rebola with Anitta, Tropkillaz and J. Balvin, and collaborated with artists like Jair Oliveira, Romero Lubambo, Chico Pinheiro, Lee Ranaldo, Vernon Reid and Nels Cline. My work with Coke, Amazon, WhatsApp, Havana Club, Chevrolet and others, has earned awards at major international festivals including Cannes Lions, Clio, and One Show.

These experiences have allowed me to lead international teams, often bridging musical and visual narratives. Whether scoring a film, conceiving a TV Show, directing a live performance, or overseeing the full creative strategy of a campaign.

Art is the act of translating emotions into one or more media. Information is not art, communication is.