She is the only daughter of famous singer and writer Jorge Mautner and historian Ruth Mendes, and is of Austrian-Jewish and Yugoslav descent on her father's side.
She initially debuted as an actress, portraying Paula in the 1991–92 telenovela Vamp, and also appeared in an episode of the TV series Você Decide, but later abandoned the acting career to become involved in directing.
On December 19, 2016, it was reported that she began work on a miniseries based on Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, scheduled to be broadcast in 2018 by Rede Globo; Caio Blat and Carolina Dieckmann were being eyed to star.
[6] In 2017 she was chosen to direct the biographical miniseries Assédio, written by Maria Camargo and inspired by the non-fiction book A Clínica, by Vicente Vilardaga, about the life and crimes of rapist and former physician Roger Abdelmassih, who was portrayed by Antônio Calloni.
[9][10] In 2017 it was reported that she fell out in favor with many of Rede Globo's telenovela writers, allegedly because of her "temperamental" demeanor, creative divergences with João Emanuel Carneiro and the lukewarm reception of A Regra do Jogo.