Márcia Martins Alves was born in Niterói on 20 January 1964, to a family of Portuguese descent, being the second of two sisters.
She took acting lessons during her youth, and made her debut in television in 1992, on Rede Globo's miniseries As Noivas de Copacabana.
[1] In 1997 she made her breakthrough as the maid Neide Aparecida in the sitcom Sai de Baixo, but left the series in 2000 after getting pregnant with her daughter.
After a one-year break, she returned to television in 2001, acting in series such as Brava Gente and telenovelas such as Desejos de Mulher and Sete Pecados.
Cabrita's final role prior to her death was in the telenovela Novo Mundo, as the wife of José Bonifácio de Andrada, Narcisa Emília O'Leary.