Today we’d like to introduce you to Abdias Melo.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My name is Abdias Melo. I am a Brazilian comedian, journalist, entrepreneur, influencer, and author currently based in Orlando, Florida. Throughout my career, I have worked in communication, journalism, entertainment, comedy, and digital media, reaching millions of people through social media. But over time, I realized that I wanted my voice and my ability to make people smile to serve a purpose greater than entertainment.
That purpose became “Sorrindo para Curar” — “Smiling to Heal.”
The project was born from my work and experiences as a journalist, comedian, and communicator, and from something I began to understand more deeply: many people are fighting silent emotional battles, and sometimes the people who appear to smile the most are carrying tremendous pain inside.
This inspired me to write my book, “Sorrindo para Curar” (“Smiling to Heal”), focused on depression, emotional awareness, and the use of the smile, humor, and human connection as supportive tools in the journey toward healing. My goal is not to present humor as a replacement for professional mental-health treatment, but to create another bridge through which people can recognize emotional suffering, seek help, reconnect with hope, and understand that they do not have to face their darkest moments alone.
But the book is only the beginning.
My dream is to translate Smiling to Heal into multiple languages and take its message around the world. I want this mission to cross borders, cultures, and languages because depression does not belong to one country or one type of person. Emotional suffering is universal, and I believe hope should be universal too.
Sorrindo para Curar is being designed as a multi-stage international social-impact project.
One of my biggest dreams is to create the Casa Sorrindo para Curar — the Smiling to Heal House. I envision it as a welcoming environment where people can step away from the pressures of everyday life and experience human connection, positive activities, conversations, laughter, comedy, and moments designed to restore hope and emotional strength. The concept would be developed responsibly and in collaboration with qualified professionals whenever mental-health care is involved.
Another stage of my vision is to create a school for comedians and new talent, where comedy is treated not only as entertainment but also as communication, art, opportunity, and social impact. I want to help discover and develop new comedians while exploring how responsible humor can bring people together and open conversations about subjects that are often difficult to discuss.
I also envision live events, talks, comedy experiences, digital content, international campaigns, educational initiatives, partnerships, and other projects connected by one central idea: using communication and the power of a smile to help people rediscover hope.
Today, one of my greatest goals is to find investors, partners, organizations, and people who believe in this mission and want to build it with me. The vision is much bigger than a book, and bringing its different stages to life will require investment, professional expertise, infrastructure, partnerships, and people who share the same desire to create meaningful social impact.
I am not looking for someone who simply sees a business opportunity. I dream of finding people who see a mission.
I started my journey by making people laugh. Today, I want to use everything I have learned through journalism, comedy, entrepreneurship, and communication to build something capable of reaching people around the world.
I don’t know exactly how far this mission will go, but I know where I want it to go: from Orlando to the world.
If one book, one conversation, one comedy show, one house, or even one smile can help someone recognize that they need support, seek professional help, reconnect with life, or simply believe that tomorrow can be different, then every step of this journey will have been worth it.
For me, Sorrindo para Curar is more than the title of a book. It is the mission I want to dedicate the next chapter of my life to.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
My journey has definitely not been a smooth road.
Like many people who pursue big dreams, I have experienced moments of uncertainty, financial challenges, closed doors, and situations where I had to start over. Moving from Brazil to the United States also meant rebuilding many parts of my professional and personal life in a new country, adapting to a different culture, language, and system while continuing to believe in my purpose.
One of my greatest challenges has been turning a big vision into something tangible. Smiling to Heal is much bigger than a book. The vision includes translating the book into multiple languages, taking its message internationally, creating the Smiling to Heal House, developing a school for comedians, producing events and educational initiatives, and building partnerships capable of reaching people struggling with depression and emotional suffering.
Dreaming is free, but building a dream of this size requires resources, infrastructure, the right professionals, strategic partners, and investment. That has been one of my biggest obstacles.
There have been moments when I had the vision but not yet the resources to execute it at the scale I imagined. Instead of allowing that to stop me, I learned to move forward one step at a time.
I also learned something important through my career in comedy: sometimes the person making everyone else laugh is fighting battles that nobody can see. That realization changed the way I look at my work and strengthened my desire to use my platform for something beyond entertainment.
My challenges have taught me resilience. Every “no,” every delay, every difficult period, and every time I had to rebuild has made the mission clearer.
Today, I don’t see obstacles as reasons to abandon the project. I see them as problems that need solutions — and sometimes the solution is finding the right person who believes in the vision with you.
That is why I remain open to investors, organizations, professionals, and strategic partners who may see the potential of Smiling to Heal and help transform this vision into a sustainable international movement.
I have learned that you don’t need to have everything figured out before you begin. Sometimes you simply need enough courage to take the next step.
My road has not been easy, but perhaps that is exactly why my story and this mission mean so much to me.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My work is built around influence, communication, entertainment, and social impact.
I am a writer, journalist, entrepreneur, digital influencer, actor, and comedian. As a digital creator, I have built a community of more than 5 million followers across my social media platforms and accumulated more than 1 billion views throughout my digital career.
My content has crossed borders. I have developed audiences and recognition not only in Brazil, but also among people in countries including Portugal, England, India, Venezuela, the United States, and other parts of the world. To me, international recognition is meaningful because it demonstrates something I have always believed: laughter does not need a passport or a common language to connect human beings.
But numbers are not what I am most proud of.
What makes me proudest are the messages and stories I have received from people who say that my work reached them during some of the darkest periods of their lives. Over the years, people struggling with depression, hopelessness, and even suicidal thoughts have told me that my humor, words, videos, and encouragement helped them find a reason to keep going, seek support, or look at life differently.
For me, that is worth more than a billion views.
That experience gave a much deeper meaning to my career and ultimately became the foundation of my greatest mission: Sorrindo para Curar — Smiling to Heal.
What sets me apart is that I no longer see comedy simply as entertainment. I see my platform as an opportunity to use the smile as a starting point for human connection, emotional awareness, hope, and conversations about depression.
Depression is a serious global public-health challenge, and suicide continues to take hundreds of thousands of lives around the world. Behind every statistic is a human being, a family, and a story. That is why I believe people with large platforms also have an opportunity to use their influence for something greater than themselves.
I want my legacy to be measured not only by followers, views, fame, or professional success, but by how many people my work can positively impact.
That is what differentiates my work.
I have more than 5 million people following me and more than 1 billion views, but the number that matters most to me will always be one: the next person who needs a reason to keep going.
That is the purpose behind my work, and that is the mission I want to take to the world.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I grew up in a very different world from the one we live in today. There were no smartphones in our hands, no social media, and computers were not part of our everyday lives. My childhood was a time when we spent more time in the streets, talking face-to-face, creating friendships, imagining our futures, and simply dreaming.
Looking back, I sometimes feel that my generation may have been one of the last to experience childhood completely disconnected from the technological world that surrounds us today. It was a simpler and, in many ways, more peaceful time. I remember it as a childhood filled with happiness, genuine friendships, freedom, and dreams.
Personality-wise, I was always very responsible and deeply concerned about other people. Even as a child, I wanted to help. At school, I was regularly elected as the class representative — essentially the voice of the students. I enjoyed listening to people, representing their concerns, and trying to find solutions. Without realizing it at the time, I was already learning something that would follow me throughout my life: how to use my voice for other people.
I had a happy childhood and an adolescence filled with enormous dreams.
At 18, one of those dreams took me thousands of miles away from home. I moved to Germany with the dream of becoming a dancer. I pursued that dream and eventually became a prominent performer of Brazilian dance and culture in Europe at that time, representing the energy, rhythms, and traditions of Brazil far from my own country.
That experience taught me very early that where you are born does not have to determine how far you can go.
But even when I was young, my greatest interest was never only my own success. I was always affected by seeing talented people with potential who simply lacked an opportunity. I wanted to help people who could not see a path forward because nobody had ever opened a door for them.
Over time, that became one of the principles that has guided my life.
I never wanted simply to find an opportunity for myself. I wanted to become the opportunity that someone else was waiting for.
When I look at who I was growing up and who I am today, many things have changed — countries, professions, technology, and the size of my dreams — but that part of me has remained the same.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Abdiasmelo.com
- Instagram: @abdiasmelooficial
- Facebook: Abdias Melo
- Youtube: @abdiasmelo9979
- Other: @Abdiasmelooficial
