Amélia Lafourcade Schmidt Rey Colaço de Robles Monteiro (2 March 1898–8 July 1990) was one of the leading Portuguese actors of the first half of the 20th century.

Orphaned at a young age, his training as a pianist started at the Madrid Royal Conservatory and was continued in Paris and Berlin, as a result of the patronage of the Count of Daupiás.

As a pianist and composer, he became music teacher to Prince Luís Filipe of Portugal and his brother, the future King Manuel II.

[1][2][3] In December 1911, Amélia Rey Colaço visited Berlin with her sister, Maria, with the aim of studying music.

To play the character, a young vagabond, she practised for months walking barefoot and wearing rags, inside the garden of her family home.

On stage with two of Portugal’s best-known actors, Palmira Bastos and Adelina Abranches, her performance received widespread enthusiasm in most of the Lisbon press.

[4] Rey Colaço organized an ambitious repertoire, in spite of censorship applied by the Estado Novo government.

As actors, her company hired some of the most famous names of the time in Portugal, such as Palmira Bastos, Laura Alves, and Vasco Santana.

She introduced an entire new generation of actors and directors who were trained by the company, such as João Villaret, Maria Barroso, Ruy de Carvalho and Filipe La Féria.

At the same time she introduced foreign playwrights to the Portuguese audience, such as Jean Cocteau, Jean Anouilh, Federico García Lorca, Ramón del Valle-Inclán, Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Pirandello, Max Frisch, Ionesco, and Edward Albee.

Her work as an actress took second place and the economic difficulties experienced by the company, a consequence of the complicated contractual conditions imposed by the National Theatre, led to several requests for government subsidies.