Luísa Leopoldina Fialho was born in Portugal on 15 February 1839 in the Fort of São Julião da Barra in what is now the parish of Oeiras e São Julião da Barra, Paço de Arcos e Caxias, to the west of Lisbon.

[1][2][3] Fialho made her professional debut at the age of 14, at the Teatro da Rua dos Condes, on 21 December 1853, alongside actor José Simões Nunes Borges.

In 1858 she returned to the Rua dos Condes, where she had a fantastic reception, with the stage being covered with flowers thrown by the audience.

Her workload was exhausting, sometimes performing in two different plays every night and even singing a song or doing a comic routine during the intervals.

[1][2][3] Although Fialho suffered some poverty after that, she was not forgotten by the public or by her professional colleagues, who would organize benefit performances for her.