Brenda Heller

Brenda Heller Pessoa Freitas is a Jiu-Jitsu black belt, a business owner and one of the standout women of her generation in the sport. A world champion at the colored belts and an American Nationals champion at black belt, she now runs Marcio André Jiu-Jitsu in Arizona with her husband, Marcio André.

Born in Saquarema, a beach town in Rio de Janeiro state, on December 5, 1995, she started martial arts at 6 with capoeira, where she had her first competitions. She took up Jiu-Jitsu at 8 at her father’s suggestion, and her first coach was César Peçanha. She later trained with Alessandro Nunes and Guto Vicente, who gave her the blue belt.

It was at blue belt that she made her name. In 2012, still a juvenile, she won both her weight class and the open class at the IBJJF World Championship and won the Brazilian Nationals. In 2014, already in the adult division, she won the Europeans, the Pans and the Worlds at featherweight and decided to train full time.

That same year, as a purple belt, she was selected to teach in Abu Dhabi, where Jiu-Jitsu is part of the public school curriculum. She taught at the Fatima Bint Mubarak and Hunain girls’ schools and spent about three years in the United Arab Emirates. She kept competing during that time: she took bronze at the 2015 Worlds, won the Pans and the World Pro in 2016 and took silver at the Europeans that same year.

In 2017 she moved to the United States after Marcio André was invited to coach there, and the two settled in Arizona. At brown belt that year she won the Pans, the South Americans and the American Nationals and took bronze at the Worlds. In 2018 she won the Brazilian Nationals, still at brown belt, and in June she got her black belt from Marcio André.

As a black belt, she won the 2018 American Nationals at medium-heavyweight. Brenda competed while pregnant and beat Andressa Cintra in the final. Cintra would go on to win five IBJJF black belt world titles starting the following year. In 2023 Brenda was back on the podium at the same tournament, with a bronze at super-heavyweight.

Away from competition, Brenda runs the school with her husband and follows her daughter’s career closely. Her daughter is already a multiple-time Jiu-Jitsu champion. Brenda still competes for Marcio André Jiu-Jitsu at medium-heavyweight.